The Right Reasons
by iammemyself
Summary: Dr Eggman has disappeared, and Sonic's determined to find out why. When he finds out why Dr Eggman is no longer active, will he take the necessary steps?
1. Chapter 1

THE RIGHT REASONS

Chapter One

We haven't seen him in months.

It's kind of weird. First he comes at us, again and again and again for years on end, and now…nothing.

I don't like it.

It bothers me so much nowadays that I can't sleep. I have this strange feeling that if go to sleep, he's gonna reappear right over my head with an axe or something with a mad gleam in his eye and the day that happens, well, let's just say I'm gonna be in trouble. I might be fast, but I'm a lot faster at staying in bed than getting out of it.

I think I'm gonna ask Tails about it. Usually he can track the guy down without too much trouble.

I sit up in bed and yell, "TAILS!"

"WHAT?" Tails yells back from the other room.

"COME HERE, I WANNA ASK YOU SOMETHING!"

Tails walks reluctantly into the room. We've had that sort of discussion before, where we literally spent about two hours arguing over who was gonna go to who, and he lost anyway. So now he just comes to me.

"I was working on something important, I'll have you know," he says grumpily.

"Well, I've got something more important for you to work on," I tell him. "I need you to find Eggman."

"Why? He's not doing anything."

"Because he's never been this quiet before. It doesn't make sense. He must be up to something huge. We need to find him and stop him before he, before he, I don't know, blows up the planet or something!"

"He would never blow up the planet," says Tails in a practical sort of way. "Where would he build Eggmanland if he did that?"

"That was just an example!" I say exasperatedly. "That wasn't even the point of that sentence. The point is, we need to find Eggman, now!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?" asks Tails.

"Find him, duh!"

Tails sits on my bed and looks at me very seriously.

"Sonic, I don't think there's anything to worry about. If he's planning something, we'll deal with it when it happens. We don't need to concern ourselves with it right now."

"But—"

"Sonic, everyone's happy right now. Do we really need to shake up their lives in order to crack down on a threat we're not even sure exists?

"Look, I've already told you he must be working on something huge. If he's taking this long on it, it must be a threat. We need to gather everyone and catch him before it's too late!"

Tails sighs and rubs his eyes.

"Look, Sonic, I'll track him down for you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone else where he is."

"What?"

"We've been free of him for a long time now. Everyone is happy, and enjoying their lives. Can't we leave it that way for a while? Sometimes…sometimes things like this are on a need-to-know basis, Sonic, and right now, nobody needs to know."

I just stare at him. I think he's gone crazy. I know he's gone crazy, these things he's saying aren't making any sense.

"If he is doing something, and we do need to bring him down—"

"Let's not get into what-ifs right now," says Tails. "I'll go find him for you. But no one else is to know."

"Fine," I say defeatedly. I guess I can go with that. I can go head-to-head with Eggman and win any day.

Tails leaves for an hour or so. I spend this hour walking back and forth across my room.

"Sonic, you ruined the rug!" Tails says, looking at the deep furrow I've worn into it.

"That's not important. Did you find him?"

"Of course I did," says Tails, but he's obviously more concerned about the rug.

"Where is he?"

"He's at one of his old bases, near the Star Light Zone," says Tails.

"Thanks buddy," I say, and I pat him on the head and run off.

When I get near the Star Light Zone, I have to say, it doesn't look any different. There's no sun-blocking massive tower, no giant fortress dominating the horizon, there's not even a sign that says I'm heading into enemy territory. It's like he's not even here.

It takes me a while to find the entrance, since there's none of the usual stuff, but I trip over something while I'm looking and it turns out there's a control panel hidden underneath a rock. I'm not sure if I was lucky or not. I did find something but now my foot hurts.

I check out the control panel. It's got a whole bunch of sliders and levers and there's a big red button of course. There's a big red button on every control panel.

The button you're not supposed to press.

Well, I can't make heads or tails of the thing, to me it's just a grey box with a whole bunch of crazy stuff on it.

But you're not supposed to press it.

I circle the area, hoping maybe I'll trip over a secret doorway or something. Nope.

Back to the control panel I go.

Alright, that button is just asking me to press it now.

So what do I do?

I press it.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Nothing happens.

I just stand there, dumbfounded. Of all the things that are supposed to happen when you press the red button, like robot armies and deathtraps and the apocalypse, none of it happened. Hey, if a snowflake fell out of the sky and landed on my nose that would've been something. But no. The one time I get to press the red button, nothing happens.

So I stand there for a minute, tapping my foot and trying to decide which of the thingies on the panel to use next. I decide on a slider on the far left side and go to move it. All of a sudden there's a really loud cracking noise, like someone's just used a giant whip. The ground splits in half.

Between my feet, of course.

I jump back as the ground splits some more, and with a lot of loud crashing noises a massive, sun-blocking tower rises out of the ground in front of me. A dome closes over the control panel, as beyond that a giant fortress appears to dominate the horizon.

And then a snowflake lands on my nose, making me sneeze.

When I open my eyes again there's a sign sticking up out of one of the pieces of the ground that wasn't destroyed by this strange event. There's an arrow and some writing on it informing me that heading in THAT direction takes me into enemy territory.

Well, where else am I gonna go? I follow the arrow.

I get a sense of "I shouldn't go in here", one I don't usually get when I've decided to storm one of Eggman's fortresses, but then again I've never seen a fortress this big before. I mean, just to get to it I have to walk in this massive shadow, and I don't like not being able to see the sun. Also this thing has badly affected the state of the weather, I mean it was nice out before, like nice but not too hot, but now it's cold and dark. There's a whole lot of creaking noises as I continue towards it, I guess the sounds of the fortress settling into its new home, but it's still kind of creeping me out.

I get to the front door (or maybe it's the side door, I didn't go and check the whole thing out) and it opens automatically. It's a fancy door that slides open into the roof. I don't understand why those kinds of doors exist. I mean, do the people who build them consider what would happen if the door just fell down while someone was walking underneath it?

The place is weird. Like really weird. It's like being under a bridge, kinda. There's a whole lot of framework but not a lot of anything else. Like this base is still a work in progress. There's some darkened monitors and a whole bunch of blinking red lights, but that's about it.

I continue walking through this place. It's the biggest base I've ever seen. But I don't think that red button was meant to be pressed yet…

Don't be stupid, I chide myself. That button is NEVER meant to be pressed. EVER.

I walk for what seems to be a really long time, even though I probably haven't. I wonder if Tails got the address wrong.

Then all of a sudden there's a loud noise like someone pulling a giant lever, and a series of lights starts coming on, leading away in front of me. Finally I can see where I'm going, so I start to run.

I reach the end of the row of lights and all that's at the end of it is one giant door. There's another control panel next to it with a bunch of blinking lights. Not much else. No red buttons this time either.

I run my hands over it, not pressing anything, and try to decide what to do. I don't want to mess this up…doing something to this might bring this whole rickety place crashing down around my ears.

Then all of a sudden there's a loud mechanical whirring noise and the door retracts into the ceiling.

With a thud it stops and I step through the doorway.

The room is very dark, with any and all of the light coming from computer monitors on low brightness. It's also the only room I've seen that's complete in any way. There's a whole bunch of wiring hanging from the ceiling and some of it is sparking. That can't be a good sign. There's a floating chair in the middle of the room on an elevated platform, and I can see yet more control panels on its arms. This whole situation is really bizarre to me. It looks like Eggman's not here.

I cross the room in a few short strides and when I'm almost across it I realize there's something I didn't notice before. I guess my eyes needed time to adjust.

It looks like Eggman's boot, just sort of lying there on the floor.

A chill runs through me and I go for a closer look.

And see the rest of Eggman attached to it.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

He doesn't look too good. I wonder how long he's been lying there. A sort of sorrow grips me.

He could have been here, like this, the whole time I thought he was just laying low.

Suddenly I see myself like he is now, and I'm afraid. I don't want to think about what could happen to me if I need help but there's no one who wants to. In my world, everyone helps everyone else. That's how it works. But Eggman…he's the enemy. Nobody helps him and he doesn't help us…well, unless he absolutely has to.

"Eggman?"

My voice is small and tentative, and it surprises me.

He doesn't answer.

I don't know what to think right now. I move around the chair and bend down on one knee over him.

He doesn't look like he's been attacked or anything. I wonder what's going on.

I put a hand on his shoulder and shake him a little.

"Eggman?"

He moves a little but that's it.

I stay there like that, not quite sure what to do next. What do you do when you walk into your enemy's secret lair and find him motionless on the floor?

I guess I'll go and get Tails. Maybe he'll know what to do.

I get up and walk towards the other side of the room. Slowly. I'm kind of reluctant to leave him there like that. It feels wrong to leave someone like that. No matter who they are.

I decide to try and wake him up one last time. He did move the second time.

"Hey, Eggman. What's going on?"

He moves a little more.

Okay, so I won't leave.

"What happened to you, man? Why are you on the floor?"

"S…Sonic?"

His voice is very, very weak and wavery.

"Yeah. Your favourite person."

He coughs a little.

"How…"

"Tails tracked you down somehow, I dunno how he did it."

I kneel down beside him. "Can you get up at all?"

He nods a bit and I help him into his chair. He leans back exhaustedly.

"What's going on, Eggman?"

He doesn't answer and after a minute I realize he must have passed out.

I run out of the building and speed as fast as I can for home. Something is seriously wrong with Eggman, and I need to find out what it is. Now.

Hopefully Tails agrees with me…

As I run I try and think of what could possibly have happened to Eggman. He wasn't marked up, there are no signs of a fight, no killer robots came out to attack me…maybe Eggman was hiding from something? That base was not finished. Maybe he was injured internally and went there to hide?

Man my head hurts from all this thinking. That's why I leave this stuff to Tails. But hey, it's not like I'm super busy right now, I totally run on autopilot.

I enter our place and come skidding to a stop. "TAILS! COME HERE, IT'S IMPORTANT!"

"Yep, I'll bet," says Tails, walking out of the kitchen with a piece of pizza from last night. "What's the world-shattering emergency this time?"

"It's Eggman," I say. "He needs our help."

Tails drops the plate and stares at me.

"He WHAT?"

"There's something wrong with him. You need to come with me and check him out."

"Sonic, why would you suggest such a thing?"

"Because he needs help," I tell him, frustrated.

"So?"

I just stare at him back.

"He's our enemy, Sonic. He tries to kill us and wipe out our ecosystems. He tries to make us his slaves. Why help him?"

"Because…because…look, just come with me and look him over, and you'll see why we have to do it!"

"Why I'LL have to do it."

"What?"

Tails stands there and shakes his head.

"If there is something wrong and if I do figure out what it is, you'll then ask me to fix it."

"Well…we could take him to a doctor…"

Tails snorts. "No doctor on Mobius would help him. I'm not sure I will."

I grab his shoulders and look him in the eye. "Tails, you have to. You have to help him."

"I get that you think I should. I don't get why."

"Because…just come with me. You'll understand when we get there, I know you will."

Tails sighs and bends down to clean up his pizza.

"Okay, Sonic. But I don't think it's a good idea."

"I know this sounds stupid, Tails. But I just…it needs to be done, that's all."

"Okay."

We finish clearing up the mess and then Tails goes and preps the Tornado. He clambers into the cockpit and I jump onto the left wing.

"Ready?" I ask him.

"I guess," he says.

With a rumble and a roar the engine comes to life, the propellers whir themselves into silence, and as the plane taxies out of the garage and onto the runway I have one thought in mind:

What if Tails is right?


	4. Chapter 4

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CHAPTER FOUR

After about ten minutes or so Tails brings the plane down near the mega-fortress that has risen out of the earth. He just sits there and stares at it for a good minute. I try not to be annoyed by how slow we have to go in order for the plane to keep up.

"Wow," he gasps. "How did we not see this? This is the biggest fortress yet!"

"It was underground," I tell him. "I pressed…this button, and it just sort of appeared."

"Oh Sonic," says Tails, shaking his head, "how many times have I told you, don't press the big red button?"

"A lot," I mutter sheepishly. "But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have found Eggman!"

Tails looks at me in a way that suggests finding Eggman was the worst thing the button could have let me do.

"Anyway, let's get going," I say. "He could be in trouble, you know."

Tails doesn't really seem to care, but he follows me anyway.

I lead him through the half-finished hallways and disordered rooms to Eggman's command centre, and Tails is just looking around in that nerdy way of his, you know, like he's seen something he wishes he made and is now trying to think of what he can make to better it. But I don't let him take too long admiring the sights. I usher him through the now-open doorway into the room.

Eggman is still sitting in his chair, just as I left him, only slumped over.

As soon as Tails sees him, he rushes forward, all of his doubts vanishing as he takes in and evaluates the state Eggman is in.

"Oh gosh," Tails breathes, moving around the chair and laying a hand on Eggman's left shoulder, "I don't believe it."

"I know, right?" I say, moving around beside him.

"This looks pretty bad," he tells me. "But I'll probably need to take him back to my lab in order to figure anything out…"

We look at each other. No matter how helpless Eggman may be now, if he gets better while he's at our place…

"Well," I muse, trying to think, "can't you move your stuff here instead?"

"I guess so," says Tails, fidgeting a little and creasing his brow. He rubs his hand on his face and sighs a little. "Trouble is, at this point, I don't know what to bring."

"Tell me what you need right now and I'll go get it," I tell him.

He thinks for a moment, then takes out his handheld and types on it for a few minutes. He hands it to me.

"I'll need these things," he tells me. "Should I come with you or… "

"No, stay here," I answer, shaking my head . "I… it's not right to leave him when we know he's like this."

Tails nods. "You're right," he says. "Call me if you can't find something."

I nod back and, after a bit of hesitation, I head off. I don't like leaving Tails alone with Eggman. Maybe this is all a trick. Maybe when I get back Tails will be a robot or something. I'm trying not to think about what would happen after that, digging through one of his eight million carefully sorted drawers, but I'm looking too fast and not finding anything. After going through the same one three times I realize I need to slow down if I'm going to do this with any efficiency.

I stop, take a breath, reread the list, and go back to searching. Within a few minutes I've found everything and am running back towards Eggman's base.

When I re-enter the room, Tails is gone.

I drop the bag of stuff on the floor and turn to Eggman. He's still in the exact same position, slumped over in his chair, but that doesn't mean anything. It could have been a robot. It's usually a robot.

"TAILS!" I yell, and I'm running into the hallway to look for him. This whole thing has got me so worked up I'm not really paying attention to where I'm going, just taking mental snapshots of the blur around me hoping to find Tails in one of them. There's a nasty tingling in my gut that I don't like and can't ignore. I skid around a corner, only to run into something and fall down.

"Yow," yells Tails, pushing me off of him, "Sonic, what are you doing?"

"Well, you were gone—so I thought—"

"Oh, I'm fine," scoffs Tails, brushing himself off, "I just wanted to take a look around. It's not every day I get to inspect one of Eggman's fortresses. Usually we're too busy blowing it up."

"Alright," I say, hoping he doesn't realize just how worried I was. Maybe it is kind of silly, what I thought, but hey, it's Eggman. Anything could happen.

Tails sets up his stuff, plugging one thingy into another, tying a couple of wires onto Eggman, and typing nonsense into his handheld. I don't know what he's doing.

I just sort of wander around the room, touching stuff I have no idea of the purpose of (usually not a good idea), and bothering Tails whenever possible. He doesn't mind, though. I try to pretend this is just another day where I'm bored and Tails doesn't feel like entertaining me because he's busy, but I've just been feeling so tense about all this since I found Eggman. I know it wasn't that long ago but it feels like years. And now I've brought Tails into it. Should I have? Or should I have figured out what to do on my own?

"Well." Tails finally stops fiddling with his stuff.

"What?"

"I have no idea what's wrong with him."

"Well that's great," I yell sarcastically, wanting to throw my hands in the air but not wanting to be melodramatic. "What are we supposed to do? We can't just leave him here."

"I know." Tails winds up some of the wires and sets them beside him carefully. "Well, there is one thing that could work…it's the only thing I can think of right now…"

"What is it?" I ask him.

Tails raises his eyebrows and makes a face. "Well, there's only one thing that works when nothing else does."

I stare at him but he seems to be serious.

"You're kidding, right?" I ask him. "That's not really… that can't be… they're not wishing rocks, Tails."

"It is," insists Tails. "It's the only way."

"You don't even know that they'll work."

"You got a better idea?"

"I trust your judgement bud, really I do," I tell him, "but…isn't that taking this a little too far?"

Tails sighs.

"I know it's a big risk, Sonic," he continues after a long silence, "but you said yourself we can't leave him here… and if we don't do it, that's exactly what we're going to have to do."

"Wow," I say. "Just wow."

Tails looks at Eggman as if he's trying to see inside him and figure out what's going on.

"… will you do it?" he asks.

I look at Eggman.

I don't want to do it. This solution… it can't mean anything good, it just can't. This is a trick. This is a plot to get me to gather them for him. I know it. I'm not gonna fall for it.

"Sonic?"

"I can't leave him here," I whisper helplessly. "I have to do it… I don't want to, but…"

He looks at me sympathetically.

"I know, Sonic." He gets up and comes over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'll do anything I can to help."

"No, you better stay here," I tell him, brushing the hand off. I want him to come too much. "In case he wakes up and he can tell you something, anything about how he got this way."

"Okay," Tails concedes. He gives me the handheld.

I take it, and leave the fortress in search of the Chaos Emeralds.


	5. Chapter 5

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Fun fact: I wrote most of what happens from when Sonic starts using the handheld to right after he hangs up on the inside of a paper donut bag! You, too, can be a great author! Using the cheapest of materials! Now with 100% less 'says'!

CHAPTER FIVE

I don't need the radar to find the first one. I know where it is, I know where it's been for months now.

Knuckles has it.

I wonder if he'll give it to me when he finds out I want to use it to cure Dr Eggman of what looks like a deadly illness?

Not.

I'm going to have to steal it from him.

The thought of stealing from one of my friends makes me shudder.

How far am I willing to go to save this man?

I feel a strange sensation that I don't recognize, and after a moment I realize that the handheld is vibrating. I pull it out and look at it. I have no idea how to use this thing. I figure it must work like one of those smartphones so I touch the green button on the screen. A little window appears in the bottom left corner with me in it, and Tails appears, taking up the remainder of the screen.

"Oh good! You're not busy!" Tails looks pretty relieved.

"Nope, you're good to go, buddy. What's up?"

"Well, I've been running some more tests."

He starts going on about all the stuff he's been doing, but it goes over my head and I blank him out for a second in a wild fantasy in which Eggman doesn't need the Chaos Emeralds. When he doesn't say anything of the sort I wrench myself back to concentrating on his voice.

"… doesn't look good. You have to hurry, Sonic." He's not looking at me anymore. He's looking at something in front of him. "Based on these results, I don't think he's got that much time left."

I mentally groan. "How long has he got?"

"… uh… a week or so."

I trip over my left foot and bite back a curse. I spend the next twenty or so steps almost hopping and trying hard not to fall on my face. Wouldn't that look good for the camera.

"You okay, Sonic?"

"Yeah, I'm cool," I mutter, regaining my balance and lost speed. "So ol' Egghead's gonna kick it in a week, that what you're saying?"

"Basically," Tails nods, looking at me again, harder and with more gravity in his face. "You've got to snag one Emerald per day, Sonic."

Again, doubts about this whole shebang trickle into my mind, but I push them away. I don't have time to think about them. And it won't help anyways.

"Sonic… maybe we should tell some of the others." His voice is careful, apprehensive. He's trying to feed me this idea without being shut down right away, but I knew this was coming and I'm already shaking my head.

"No. They won't understand. YOU didn't understand. Do you see anyone else being convinced? Not Knuckles at the very least. We keep it to ourselves. We can't have anyone getting in our way, and we don't have the time."

As soon as it leaves my mouth I feel a chill run through me. I sound like some sort of… villain.

"All right," Tails answers, but his face is a little tighter and his voice a little more anxious. He doesn't agree with me.

"Trust me, pal." I use my most convincing voice. "We can do this on our own. We've done stuff like this before."

Tails gives me a stare that goes right through me, his face dead serious.

Okay then. No more phoney baloney.

"Seven days, seven Emeralds. Piece of cake." I flash a carefree smile at him I don't really feel and put the handheld away before I say something really stupid. That convinces Tails to go get someone to help him tie me up. I block everything out and focus on clarifying the blur around me.

When I get to the Island I don't see Knuckles anywhere, but that usually doesn't mean a whole lot.

I know the Emerald is somewhere on this Island, but since I don't know exactly where I pull out the handheld and use the radar on it.

It's with the Master Emerald.

Great. Knuckles's favourite place to hang out.

I head over there as quietly and as carefully as I can, no running or trying to get there fast. I don't feel like getting into a discussion with Knuckles about how badly I need the Emerald to save our biggest enemy.

I get to the Master Emerald and Knuckles is nowhere in sight.

Well that's the best news I've had all day.

I run up the shrine and look around for the Emerald. Apart from the big one, I'm not seeing it.

"Looking for this?"

I look down and there's Knuckles standing in front of the shrine, tossing the Emerald up and down in one gloved hand.

"Uh… actually, yeah," I shrug.

"Why? What do you need it for?"

"Something really important," I tell him. "In fact, it's so important, I don't have time to explain it to you. Can I have it? Um… please?"

"Well…" muses Knuckles, putting his hands on his hips and strolling casually in front of me. "I don't have time to give it to you."

"That doesn't even make sense," I shout down at him. "All you have to do is hand it over!" My brows are creased so hard it hurts and my fists are clenched tight.

"Yeah, but I have so many important things I have to do first." Knuckles rubs the Emerald on his chest. "Like shine my shoes and cut my split ends."

"This isn't a joke, Knuckles! I need it!"

"What for?"

"Because… because…" I hesitate, trying to figure out what will convince him. I come up short and decide to just spit it out. Well, telling him's not going to convince him to give it to me, but I have no time to lose. "Eggman's dying and we need it to cure him!"

There. I said it.

Knuckles stares at me like I've just escaped from the loony bin, his dark eyes going from disbelieving to serious. He stops playing with the Emerald and clenches it tightly in his gloved fist as he takes a step away from me.

"What are you, crazy? You expect me to hand over this Emerald so you can save Eggman's life?" His voice rises in anger as he speaks. There's a spark in his eye now, which usually means trouble, but I ignore it and keep pushing.

"Yes!" I tell him. "Look, Knuckles, I know it's crazy! But you have to understand!"

"I always knew you were an idiot, but this takes the cake, Sonic," Knuckles sighs, shaking his head. "No, I'm not giving it to you. And I'm taking you out so you can't gather the other Emeralds and continue on with this craziness!"

He throws the Emerald into the shrine and with a heavy clunking noise it closes. Then I flip backwards off the side, twisting, as Knuckles clambers up to attack me.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

"Okay, Knuckles, this is definitely NOT COOL!"

I spin away from him, around the shrine, wishing he wouldn't attack me over the Chaos Emerald, even if I do want it for a reason he doesn't agree with. What if it was him I had to save?

He aims a punch at me, and I duck under it at the last second. Because of this he thinks he got close and starts trying to hit me faster, he's throwing his fists all over the place like he's some kind of fighting octopus.

He thinks he's moving fast. To me, he's in slow motion, regular time at best.

I let him almost land one here, let him touch my shoulder there, the whole time giving ground and trying to make him feel like he's winning. I'm thinking really fast now, which usually happens when I get in a fight, since I have to lead Knuckles on, land hits of my own, and figure out how to get to the Chaos Emerald all at the same time. For some reason though I start thinking about what Tails said about multitasking not being effective. See, we had this big long argument about what I call 'the zone' (I know it's a lame name, shut up) and how I usually think of several things at once. He told me I'm not doing several things well, I'm—

—getting decked by Knuckles.

Getting punched in the face at 50 kilometres an hour is not a lot of fun. It's even less fun when it sends you flying through about six trees and into a stone wall.

I push myself up and finger the place he hit me. It still hurts, which means I'm gonna have headaches for the next three days.

Huh. I guess Tails was right about the multi-tasking thing.

Or maybe I was just trying to think of too many things at once.

Knuckles doesn't waste any time. In fact, by the time I'm done taking my hand off my face, his fist is heading straight for the part of my forehead it just came from. I manage to duck fast enough to get out of the way, but his body doesn't stop and he trips over me and into the rock. Now he's done that, it feels like I've been kicked in the ribs and I can't breathe, so I roll over real quick and hope I was fast enough for him not to fall on me.

Knuckles crashes into the wall, right fist taking a good chunk out of it, and he growls and turns around to face me again.

"Give it up, Sonic," he roars between clenched teeth, stepping towards me. "I won't let you have that Emerald!"

Okay, Sonic, think fast. Faster than you've ever thought before. Got to trick him. That's the best way... but how? I can't get inside the shrine. He's sealed it. He's coming so I've got to back up. Need to stand up first. Dizzy. Get him to open the shrine somehow. Take him out. Kick his arm out of the way. Wonder if Tails stayed with Eggman. Try to punch him in the throat. Damn sun is in my eye. Wow he sure took a piece out of that wall. Aw crap he hit me on the shoulder.

As I fall to the ground again I realize what I have to do. I turn the fall into a somersault and flip backwards through the air, whipping my left foot around at the last second to bring it crashing into the side of his head. He goes flying some distance away, his body dragging across the ground and tearing up great plumes of dirt and grass. I can smell the torn roots from where I'm standing, my weight a little more on my right leg because my left one is tingling from the impact.

This is Knuckles, though, and he's a bit thick-headed to begin with. He gets up right away and comes rushing at me like a locomotive, complete with loud noises and the feeling that I gotta get out of the way. I give my full attention to him now that I've come up with an idea, trading kicks and punches with him at incredible speed, both of us trying our damnedest to take the other out. I'm breathing harder than usual due to the blow he dealt to my ribs, which still hurt, and my vision is tunneling a bit every now and then. I've got to get this over with. I'm not at my best right now. I think that jerk gave me a concussion.

I need a breather so I back off and duck into the forest. I weave through the trees, missing each one by millimetres, so close I can feel my spines brushing against the bark. Dappled light streams down between the canopy above me, and I can't see where I'm going save for the view I allow to filter through my eyelashes. With the transition from light to shadow and back again being so fast, I'd blind myself if I left them open. As it is, the flashes are spiraling from my eyes to my head, and the pounding in my head intensifies.

After I can no longer hear his footfalls or his rasping breath behind me I stop, open my eyes and take stock of where I am. Trying to catch my breath without breathing too loud I take in the darkness around me. As a trickle of discomfort winds its way into my brain I realize I'm standing in one of the rivers that runs through here. My feet aren't wet, just cold. Uncle Chuck makes good shoes. But I step back and turn towards the direction I came from. I can just see the shadow of the shrine through the darker shadow of the trees. If I hurry I might be able to reach it before Knuckles stops looking for me. Hopefully I can slip in when he does.

I take another breath, deeper this time, and focus on where it's going, feel it flood my tired body with energy. Then I run towards the shrine.

He comes at me from the right, plowing into me like an avalanche only a few seconds after I've started, and I'm unprepared and I fall over. My left arm folds underneath me uncomfortably, the weight of Knuckles pressing it into my ribs, while my right arm comes up automatically to try and push him away before he gets the better of me. He bats it away and drives his knee into my abdomen. I gasp involuntarily and instinctively stab out with my fingers. They go into his nostrils and I don't think about where they are, just yank to the left as hard and as fast as I can. There's a nasty cracking noise and Knuckles screams. I drive my knee into his ribs and try not to scream myself. He's a lot more built than last time and I think I've bruised it. He flies backwards, clutching his nose, and I jump to my feet and throw myself at him. I try to punch him and counter his incoming fist just as he's snatching mine. For a minute we just stand there, struggling, glaring at each other, the glistening blood leaking out of his nose dropping onto the fallen leaves like some kinda perverse kind of rain.

"You're going to pay for that, you know." His teeth are bared, and with a snort he shoots a gob of the blood out of his nose.

Strength against strength, I'm not going to win. Without thinking about it, just going on pure instinct, I grab his wrist with my blocking hand and twist quickly, and hard, the friction breaking the skin there. He immediately snatches his arm back. My glove is black and more crimson droplets rise out of his flesh. His eyes are wide for a moment.

"Sonic… "

I don't think about it. I can't think about it. I drive my foot into his chest. It doesn't hurt this time. My shoe takes the brunt of the impact.

I drive him back, and back, and we're almost where we started, at the shrine. My arms are getting heavy now. I'm becoming exhausted. Why so soon? I've never fought him for this long before, and he's so much stronger than he used to be.

I almost have him right where I want him. I can do this. Arms are tired, use your legs. I aim a kick at him with my left foot, no particular spot in mind, I just want to hit him and hit him fast.

Excruciating pain shoots up my leg as iron fingers dig into my shin and twist, hard. Without meaning to I breathe in harshly, reacting to a pain I wish I hadn't acknowledged.  
Suddenly my body is in the air, the world condensing into a confusing blur that I can't make out and I'm screaming because my knee is on fire. I can't injure it, not now, so I put all of my effort into pulling myself towards Knuckles, by bending that knee and bringing my other foot into his face. I'm falling to the ground and rolling away from him as he staggers back, wiping the dirt from my treads out of his eye.

If I strike fast—if I hit him now—


	7. Chapter 7

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
CHAPTER SEVEN

When I open my eyes I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop from crying out. My head is throbbing and it's really all I can do not to roll into a fetal position and try and hold my brains in. I don't think I've ever had this bad of a headache before. It's really dark and that's not helping.

What the hell happened?

Trying to remember only makes my head hurt more, so I try to relax instead. It will come to me if I let it.

Oh, that's right. Knux got me after all.

I'm leaning against a wall somewhere. As I come back into the world, details start to trickle in.

I think I'm in the shrine.

My eyes adjust to the gloom a bit more and I can just see his outline, maybe 20 metres away. He's sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall. One leg is flat on the ground and the other is bent, and his arms are crossed. It hurts to try to distinguish his dark figure from the rest of the blackness so I close my eyes and tell myself that I don't need to feel this pain, that I know what the problem is and I'll deal with it when I can. After a little while it fades enough for me to work around it, and I put the palms of my hands flat against the wall behind me and push myself up. My legs are a bit shaky at first, but once I get them under me they're fine.

A nagging voice in the back of my head tells me to sneak up on Knux and snatch the Emerald from him, but I push it aside. I already tried to bash his brains in. Stealing the Emerald from him now would require me to be more of a jerk than I want to be right now.

As I walk towards Knuckles, making no effort to quiet the echoing of my footsteps, I feel a shiver of uneasiness down my spine. I fought Knuckles over a Chaos Emerald. I fought Knuckles over a Chaos Emerald to save Eggman.

I clench my fists hard and focus on that instead of my thoughts.

Once I'm close enough to make out the white glow of his eyes I stop. "Hey Knuckles."

"Hey Sonic."

His voice sounds funny. Like he has a cold.

I try to think of why that would be and am instantly treated to a horrible flashback of me wrenching his head to the left. The sound of his nose breaking.

I stand there for a minute feeling really uncomfortable and disgusted with myself. My hands are opening and closing on their own in a sort of waving motion so I cross my arms instead, not wanting him to notice. I can't believe I broke his nose.

"Uh… thanks for bringing me in here." I'm going to ask him for the Emerald after doing that?

"It's raining."

His voice is flat and I can't tell what he's thinking.

"Well that doesn't usually stop you." I shrug and look at the floor.

"I'm not giving it to you."

I let my arms drop. "Knuckles, seriously? Why can't you? It won't hurt. Promise." It's too tense in here. I sound stupid and trite but at these times I can't help making idiotic jokes.

Knuckles moves his head a little bit and looks up at me, eyes locked on mine and more serious then I'd ever seen them. "You sure about that, blue?"

I pull in a breath and let my legs fold onto the ground. "Knux, I'm sorry. I didn't… I didn't mean to take it that far."

"Sonic…" His hands are moving up and down his arms a little. "If I wasn't so convinced you were crazy I would have thrown you in a corner somewhere and forgotten about you. But this plan of yours is so bananas that I decided to give you a second chance."

"Well, it's what I do." My fingers dig into the dirt in front of me and play with the little rocks that come loose.

He sits up, uncrossing his arms. His eyes are intense, shadowed by the brows meeting over them. He looks at me hard, then leans back against the wall, puts his hands in his lap, and starts staring at them.

"I don't know why you want to save Eggman, Sonic. But I won't help you. If you want that Emerald you're going to have to go and get it." He sounds strong, confident, but I don't know. I'm also getting a vibe like he's trying to tell me two things at once.

"Knux, I don't wanna fight you again. But I don't know what to tell you."

"Are you stupid, Sonic? Do you work at this or does it come natural?" He presses his fingers into the ground and shoves himself against the wall to brace himself better.

I stop fiddling and look up at him. I hadn't realized I'd looked away.

"I don't wanna argue about it anymore." I stand up and start walking away. I hate this. I feel like I've failed. Maybe if I come back in a few days, with a few of the Emeralds. Maybe then he'll listen.

I head down the exit path inside the shrine, a bitter taste in the back of my mouth . I'm so disappointed in myself. I've wasted all this time and gotten nowhere. And now I'm leaving Knuckles in the shrine with a broken nose that I gave him because I don't have time to help him like I should. I mean if I break a guy's nose I oughtta help him out.

I step out into the open air and the first thing I notice is the sky. It's grey, with thick, heavy clouds, but through one of them the sun is fighting its way through.

The second thing I notice is the Chaos Emerald.

It's on the path just ahead of me. Not hidden. Not dropped. Just there.

I look back at the entrance to the shrine behind me.

Geez am I stupid.

I walk forwards and bend down on one knee to pick it up. It was definitely placed there. It's slick with rain that quickly soaks my gloves. As I stand back up I brush the mud off my leg.

I get a bit of a funny feeling in my stomach. I'm not sure what it is. But it doesn't feel very good. Like kind of a sick, hollow feeling.

I start walking away from the shrine, my shoes making little sucking noises as I pull them out of the mud with each step. When I get into the forest I feel better. I love the smell of rain in the air, and it calms me down. No matter what happens, no matter how dirty something is, one day it will rain and wash it all clean again.

As I continue through the forest, little droplets of mist in the air condense on my skin and I shiver. It's making me cold but the discomfort helps me focus. I want to go see Tails, but I don't have time to get there right now. I need to sleep. I should probably eat too but my headache is growing and sleeping is usually about the only thing that helps. I'm trying so hard to ignore it that I almost walk into about eight trees and knock myself out. As it is I end up with a bad bruise on my arm from hitting a knot with it.

By the time I make it out of the forest and get off the Island, what remaining light in the sky is fading and I know I need to hurry and find somewhere to go. If it rains again I don't want to be caught outside in it. Usually I like being out in the rain, but right now I just want to crash and stay that way, and that won't happen if rainwater is going up my nose.

I make it to the edge of Hydrocity before it gets too dark and, me being me, someone lets me stay the night at their place. Weirdly enough they have a treehouse, so I grab a blanket off them and head in there.

It's a big tree, taller than the house itself. I clamber up the branches and pull myself inside. It's solidly made and looks old but sturdy. I wonder if the tree grew with the house in it or if they put the house in after.

I wrap myself in the blanket and look outside. I can see the ugly little buildings out there. They're all made of these weird coloured, mismatched bricks, as if someone counted how many bricks they had and when they didn't have enough made the rest out of Play-Doh. I hope there are no Chaos Emeralds there. I'm really not in the mood to figure out their waterway right now.

I yawn and close my eyes. I'm gonna be soggy when morning comes but I can't bring myself to care. I have one Chaos Emerald. Only six more to go. I can do this. Everything's gonna be alright.


	8. Chapter 8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``  
CHAPTER EIGHT

Tails built a new toy and now he's shining it in my eyes.

"Tails, stop." I bat at him with one hand without opening them. I roll onto my stomach and pull my blanket tighter, burrowing into the bed.

"But look Sonic! I can make it dif'rent colours, see! I just gotta put this in front a here an' look! It's purple!" The light doesn't change.

"It is NOT purple. Now go play with it somewhere else."

"It is SO purple! Look!"

I bat him away again and try to pull the blanket over my head. I've gotten myself tangled in it over the course of the night, and it won't come up any higher.

"Sooooniiiiiic! Look at my light! You been sleepin' long enough!"

"I have not! And that light is not purple, get it out of my face!"

When he doesn't, I open my eyes and push myself up, determined to prove to him that the light isn't purple. I'm surprised to see that I'm lying in a treehouse I don't recognize. I look around quickly to see Hydrocity stretching out ahead of me. The sun is bursting through the clouds like it would through a window, and I rub at my eyes. Where's Tails? Dr Robotnik's getting away.

It's only when I see the bruise on my arm that I realize I was dreaming.

I shake my head violently and sit up straight, feeling my spines rub together as I stretch out the kinks in my back. I'm a little sore from lying on solid wood all night, but it's not too bad. And my headache's gone. Bonus points.

I rub my eyes again and fold up the blanket, leaving it in the tree. I should probably bring it into the house or something, but I have no clue what time it is and don't want to bother them. So I'll just leave it here.

I jump out of the tree, a bit of shock running through one of my knees, but that's normal. I ignore it. I pull out the handheld and figure out where the next Chaos Emerald is.

It's in Station Square. I think that means Amy has it.

I wonder what I'll have to do to convince her to give it to me. I'm definitely not going to beat on Amy. Insult her, yes. Hit her, no.

I stretch a bit more, trying to pretend I really need to and that I'm not trying to delay going to see her. Then I start running.

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes I'm running, and I stop paying attention. The steps, the routes, the rhythms, they're all so familiar to me that sometimes I just tune out and surrender to the blur. I can't always see where I'm going.

Sometimes I run into things.

So all of a sudden I find myself lying on the ground, with a whole bunch of people staring at me. Yes, people. For some reason people and Mobians live together here without getting into too many fights. I just stay away from it. I have nothing against Overlanders, but they make everything so complicated that I prefer to leave them be. So when I look up and see them starin' at me, I feel a little uneasy. They like to make big things out of us running in the middle of the road and stuff. I wonder why they ruined perfectly good grass to put a road there in the first place. I glance over and see a transport truck lying sideways on the road. Oops.

"Uh… hey there." I hop up and brush myself off. Most of the Overlanders surrounding me back up a good distance, all staring at me harder.

"Are you… are you Sonic the Hedgehog?" one of the closer ones asks, poking me with his index finger.

"Hey! Yeah, I am, and I don't appreciate being poked like that! Look, I'm only here for one thing. I need to talk to…" The words stick in my throat. "I need to talk to Amy Rose. Does anyone know where she is?"

Silence.

"C'mon guys. Don't you wanna be able to tell your friends that you helped Sonic the Hedgehog out?" I cross my arms and start tapping my foot.

Nobody answers, they just keep staring and fidgeting.

Well, I guess what works on Tails don't work on everybody.

"Fine." I start walking away from them. Damn those Overlanders. Always ready to take from you, but they never have anything to give.

A small, high voice pipes up from behind me. "Wait, Mr Hedgehog! I can tell you where she is!"

I spin around, expecting to see a little kindergarten girl with tight brown pigtails complete with pink bows but instead come face to face with…

Okay, nowhere near face to face. Let's try face to gut. That works better.

The guy is enormous, with a mushy face and curly blonde hair. And when I say enormous I mean twice as big as me. I mean bigger than Eggman. And if I knew a guy that was bigger than Eggman, well, I'd add them to the list too. I'm not understanding how he could possibly have such a voice but it keeps on coming.

"Amy Rose is at Casinopolis! She's helping them get things running again."

Oh man. I'm gonna start laughing. I try not to judge people, really I do, but this guy… seriously…

"Uh… thanks." I turn around and duck through the ring of Overlanders, some of whom try to grab me as if I'm some sort of rock star, spinning around the corner of a nearby building and into the alley it shelters. Then I start laughing, barely managing to hold myself up by leaning one-armed against the side of the grey brick wall.

"What's so funny?"

I know that voice. I need all my wits so's I can talk to him. It doesn't pay to be distracted.

I fight to stop laughing. When I'm able to look up I can see Shadow standing over me, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as usual.

"Oh, nothing. Just thought of something funny all of a sudden."

"Really." His voice is dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah. One a those 'you had to be there' things. So what's up, Shades?"

He shrugs. "Well when I heard that some dumb animal went and knocked over a semi I figured you'd blown into town to grace the humans with your presence."

I stand up and brush the brick dust off my gloves, noticing the blackness left on it when I burned Knuckles's wrist. I quickly try to hide it. "It's not easy being blue, you know."

"What happened to your hand?" He's got a suspicious tone in his voice, as if he's just asking to see what I'll say. Well, I'll bite.

"Huh? My hand?" I look at it and hopefully give off the impression that I've never seen the mark before. "Wow, look at that."

He snatches my wrist and holds it up near his nose. His eyes narrow even further, which I didn't think was possible. "Blackened fabric with torn fibers… right through the material and onto your skin… don't tell me you're so oblivious you didn't know you you'd burned you hand."

"Uh… I missed it?"

He almost throws my hand back at me, then all of a sudden pushes my shoulders against the wall. "What are you hiding, faker?" he intones in a low growl.

"I'm not lying about anything! I don't know how that got there!" I struggle against his grip. He looks into my eyes for a minute, hard, then roughly lets me go and wrinkles his nose. "I don't know what you're keeping from me, and I don't particularly care. I only wonder what could be so important that you're willing to keep lying about it."

"Shad… " I look at the ground a minute. My leg is twitching a little, and I make a conscious effort to still it. "It's nothing, okay? I probably just did it cornering, or something."

"If you'd done it cornering there would be dirt or gravel in the wound." I'm not surprised he noticed that. He doesn't miss anything. Before I open my mouth to answer, he shakes his head. "I don't want to hear any more excuses. If you want to keep lying to me, fine."

I shake a little in frustration. "Well what do you want then? You don't usually just drop by to say hello."

"Amy asked me to give something to you. I saw her a few days ago."

He holds out a banana.

"Uh… why were you hanging out with her in the first place?" I cautiously take it. It's from Shadow. For all I know it's cursed.

"Why would I need to explain myself to you?" Shadow sneers, folding his arms together again and stepping back.

"Thanks for the banana?"

"Thank Amy. I didn't care, but she made such a fuss about how you were coming all the way from Green Hill and probably hadn't eaten in a while."

On cue my stomach growls. Shadow makes a rude noise and turns around.

"Wait… how did Amy know I was coming?"

"She called Tails for help with the computer system. Apparently the mainframe was down last night. He told her."

I'm gonna have a word with that kid…

Shadow starts walking away, then turns around suddenly. A chill runs down my spine. The sun from in front of the building almost seems to divide around him, as if he's his own eclipse. His scarlet eyes are sharp.

"I don't know what you're up to, faker, but the second I hear you're doing something stupid, I'm coming to take you down. "

He faces away from me again.

"I know exactly what you did to your hand. I've done the same thing in G.U.N. training. I only wonder who was on the other end."

He walks away and I'm left standing there, feeling dazed.

Shadow knows what's going on?

I look at my hand. Honestly I hadn't realized I had burned it, but there it was, a rash and some small blisters underneath the little holes in my glove.

I need to hurry up and get this over with. With Shadow suspecting me, my plan could get found out real fast. And that's one thing I don't need happening right now.

I am starving, though, so I quickly open the banana and eat it in about three bites. Having food in my stomach at last actually makes me feel hungrier and for a second I think I'm going to fall down, but I put my hand against the wall again, and it passes. I toss the peel in one of the Dumpsters behind the building and head for Casinopolis, trying not to think about what'll happen when I get there. An Amy surprised by my sudden appearance is bad. An Amy who's prepared for me is much, much worse.


	9. Chapter 9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
CHAPTER NINE

I walk slowly up the stairs to Casinopolis and pass between the doors. More Overlanders are gathered around staring at me. Geez, it's as if they'd never seen a blue hedgehog before.

Hm, maybe they haven't.  
I hate coming here. They've got, like, this shrine to me in there, and I don't even know why. I mean sure, I saved their butts a couple times, but why does that mean you have to do all that? I feel really stupid every time I walk in there. And what's that NiGHTS game about anyways? I have a feeling they think I know that person or something.

I walk into the casino and wince. It's so garish…

I run my hand along the wall until it hits some dumb statue and I bring it back to my side. It's pretty empty, but then again it usually is. I wonder how they run a casino that no one goes to.

"Amy?"

My voice bounces around in the big room. It remains empty.

I guess I've got to find the computer room.

I'm not sure where it is so I have to wander around looking for it. Thankfully the games are off. I hate the bright lights and the cartoonish noises. I poke my head in the shower room and pull it out just as quickly. I always get the impression someone's watching me when I go in there.

I've circled the one room in the place, so I duck into the banking room and take a quick look around in there. Nope, no Amy. I'm starting to feel a bit nervous. How come you can't find the girl when you want her? I duck out from under that giant hand thing and run back into the casino proper. I don't have any rings anyway.

I'm looking around confusedly. I need to find that computer room… where's Vector when you need him…

Then I'm blinded by flashing purple lights and I run into a wall. Amy must be starting the system back up… but where is she…

I stumble backwards and fall through the floor.

I land hard on rough concrete, and after blinking the purple haze out of my eyes I can see that I've found the computer room, judging by the dusty monitors and desktops spread neatly around the room. I don't know why they keep it in the basement… Tails would have a few things to say to them about that….

I brush off my bruised posterior and shake my head a little more to clear the fog. I regret it as dizziness washes over me. I put my hand out and it hits this random computer console. When I look to see what I hit, I can see the tips of my fingers touching a button.

A red one.

I turn around and rub my forehead a little to get rid of the dizziness. I really want to press this button. I don't know what it does, and it's probably not good, especially considering what happened last time…

Okay, I'm not gonna press it. I'm gonna walk away. It's a computer button. It's gonna start a doomsday clock or something. I don't know jack about computers. I leave that stuff to Tails.

I look around the room. It's really dark and dusty. I wonder why. If this is a computer room, shouldn't a whole bunch of people be in here all the time?

I go for a stroll, looking at all the dimmed computer monitors but there's not much to see. If there's one thing I learned from Tails, it's that you don't touch another guy's computer. He'll rip your face off. So I basically just see blackness or occasionally green letters scrolling up a screen very fast. I can read the letters, but I don't understand them.

I end up back at the button.

Why do I always end up back at the button?

Was finding Eggman really that bad? I mean I sure wouldn't want to die like that, alone in a chair, nobody knowing or caring where I was.

The thought of it makes my fur stand up, and I shiver a little.

Then without hesitation I slap my hand down on the button.

There's a popping noise and as I spin around to face it I see sparks. Uh oh.

One of the monitors across the room explodes in a spray of glass and dark smoke. Time to bail.

I'm glancing up at the ceiling, trying to see if I can just jump out or if I need some momentum when the dimness in the room fades to black.

My eyes adjust quickly to the darkness and I wish they hadn't. All the little glowy lights on those sleeping computers is creeping me out. Like they're a bunch of little snoring monsters and if I'm too loud I'll wake them up.

Then there's a loud thunking noise and all the status lights go out.

I wonder what exactly I broke…

Then I'm yelling as the room is flooded with light, it's burning my eyes out, and I fall against the console behind me as I try to cover them. There's a loud whirring noise and a lot of electronic beeping.

Please don't let those computers be coming alive…

"Sonic?"

Oh boy. I'm sprawled on the floor and Amy shows up. Great.

"Oh uh… hi Ames." I push myself up off the floor and manage to leap back to my feet with a lot more agility than I feel as she drops down through the trapdoor in the ceiling. "How are ya?"

"Sonic, what are you doing here?" She reaches out to grab my arm, but I pull away.

"I… I came to ask you something." Thankfully my voice doesn't waver.

She steps back and leans against a desk behind her. She's got dirt on her face and her dress is greying from the dust. "Well Sonic, this is sure a strange way to ask me out…"

I roll my eyes when I hear her usual attempt to be seductive. "Ames, I'm not here to ask you out. I'm never going to ask you out. So stop asking me to ask you out!"

Amy leans forward and stretches her fingers out towards my face. "Sonic, one day you're gonna want a girl. A girl like me. Who you'll want to get married to."

I jerk backwards and almost fall over when I hit the console behind me faster than I intended. "Getting married is the farthest thing from my mind right now, Amy."

She steps forward. "Actually, I think you're thinking about it as we speak."

Gosh darn it.

"Okay fine. I am thinking about it. But I'm thinking about NOT thinking about it. So—" She's stepping closer and I'm out of room to back up. "Amy! Stop it!"

"Alright alright." She stops advancing, but she's still standing way too close.

"Uh… you wanna let me breathe there Ames?"

"You're so picky." She clambers up on the desk behind her. "So. If you're not here to ask me out, what ARE you here for?"

I hop up on the table behind me, mainly to get as far away from her as possible. "Well, I was wondering if you could help me find something."

"Mmhmm…" She starts playing with the bracelet on her left wrist. "And what would that be?" I'm taking the breath to ask her when she whips the Chaos Emerald out of nowhere. "It's not this, is it?"

"Well, uh, actually it is." I stammer a little bit as I say this. My right leg starts twitching again. Damn it. I pull it up onto the desk and drape my right arm on it casually. Stay still damn it.

She twirls it around in her hand for a minute. "Well, we usually pass these off to you after a while, don't we."

I feel a little hopeful but force it back down. Amy never gives me anything for free. "Yeah, usually." I start swinging my other foot a little to distract myself from the twitch in my leg. "You wanna… you wanna do that now?"

Amy looks at me, and her eyes narrow a little for a moment. She shifts a little on the table. "I already knew you were coming for it."

"Yeah… I heard." I wonder how long she's gonna draw this out. I don't have all day. The longer I sit here playing her game, the more time I'm wasting to find the rest of the Emeralds.

"A little birdie told me." She continues playing with the Emerald.

"I know. Look, Amy, can I have that now? I don't have all day." My other hand is gripping the lip of the desk, hard.

Amy slams the Emerald down on the desk and I jump. She looks annoyed. "And I don't suppose you can be bothered to tell me what you need it for? I just have to hand it over to you, just like that?"

"I need it to save somebody's life! Is that a good enough reason for you?" I'm tired of explaining this to people already and I've got so many Emeralds to go. I gotta get a handle on my temper. Yelling's not gonna change her mind. Oh God, who else am I gonna have to get the Emeralds from…

"Why can't I come with you? Why won't you tell me who it is?" She's leaning forward on the desk now, eyes boring into mine. I try not to think of just who it is I'm losing my mind to save and look away.

"I just… I just can't, okay? It's really important, Amy!"

"I think, as your friend, I deserve some respect, Sonic. At least let me help you. Give me that." Her voice is calm and reasonable, and I feel myself softening. For some reason all of a sudden I can see her being dragged away screaming by Metal Sonic the day we met, her rescuing me from Prison Island only to be captured herself, her being sucked away and trapped in time, and I'm about to tell her what's going on when I realize just how angry she must be inside. All those years of being kidnapped and used for bait. All those years of being dismissed as a stupid fangirl, when she's her own distinct person. She must hate Eggman's guts. I can't… I can't risk it. I can't tell her. If it were anyone else she'd understand. This is Eggman. And if I tell her, it's only going to feed that anger, and maybe even take her beyond the breaking point. That I'm willing to save a man who did all this to her.

And why doesn't she trust me, anyway? Don't I always save her? Don't I always protect her from the worst of the danger? Why is she putting me through this? Suddenly I'm clenching my teeth and my fingers hurt from gripping the desk so hard. Why does no one trust me? I'm trying to let them keep their peace, like Tails said I should! Why won't they let me protect them? I speak without thinking through a sudden haze of confusion and anger.

"If you're my friend, you'll understand and you'll do what I ask you to do!"

We just stare at each other. My entire body has frozen, and the sick feeling comes back into my stomach. What in the world did I just say. And how'm I gonna unsay it?

Sadness flashes across Amy's face. It's only there a moment, but the intensity of it staggers me and while I'm trying to get that image out of my head she's crossing the space between us and pressing the gem into my right hand.

"I hope to God this person you're saving is worth it, Sonic. If you're willing to treat me this way I don't want to know how you're treating the others."

I sit there frozen on the desk. I can't move. I want to run after her, screaming, giving her back this stone that's burning a hole into my hand right down to my soul and corrupting it. I want to run after her and make her stop so that I can ask, hell, beg her forgiveness. It's one thing to turn her down. It's another to break her heart entirely.

When I'm finally able to get off the desk I'm stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, and a section of my back is numb from leaning against a computer for however long I've been here. I rub at it a little.

My legs don't seem to be in very good shape right now. The knee Knuckles twisted hurts and I can't walk quite straight. By the time I make it outside, it's pitch black. I must have been there for hours. I don't remember it. I feel kind of numb. And it has nothing to do with my back, which is now tingling uncomfortably.

All I can think of is what I said to her.

I hate when Amy comes on to me. I hate when she harasses me. I hate it when she texts me, I hate it when she won't leave my house, I hate it when she tries to trick me into taking her out.

But I would endure all of that, maybe not happily, but I would endure all of that and not say a word ever again if I could take back what I told her. Everyone says I'm bossy. That I take everything over. That I can't not be the leader. That I demand everyone does what I say. I've always denied it. I _try_ not to do that.

But those words… they were my instinct, I said them without thinking. Doesn't that mean they're true? Doesn't that mean that's in my heart?

For every Emerald I get, I lose a friend? Is that how this is gonna be?

I'm with you, Amy. I hope to God Eggman is worth saving.

I hope I'm doing the right thing.


	10. Chapter 10

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CHAPTER TEN

I don't know where I am. I don't know what time it is. I fell down and passed out sometime last night. I remember running somewhere. I remember not being able to breathe, and not being able to see, and trying not to think. I guess that's why I don't remember. I don't want to.

The only thing I do remember is that I dreamed I was at home again, and that Tails was shining the light in my eye again. Only this time he was trying to tell me that the light was green, 'like a tree deep'n the forest, Sonic!'

I rub my eyes and try to forget that too. I don't need to think about Tails right now. I want to go and see him so badly; I want him to give me the reassurance he always gives me, because heaven knows I need it now. But I can't go back. Not yet. It's too soon.

I sit up reluctantly and discover I've collapsed against a tree somewhere. Everything hurts because I'm just in this random position, and random positions aren't good for you. My head is at a funny angle to the tree trunk, my left knee is sticking out and my other leg is just sitting there, and half of my back is on the ground. Ouch.

I'm covered in caterpillars.

I don't mind caterpillars, but I don't want to squish any, so I carefully pick 'em all off and put them in the grass beside me. Then I stand up slowly. I'm covered in dew. Maybe that was what attracted the caterpillars. I try to brush off the wetness, but I only succeed in making the burn on my hand sting. I look at it. I've broken the blisters somehow. I try to think of how but I can only remember as far back as stumbling out of the casino, and beyond that I don't want to remember.

I know it has something to do with Amy.

I shake myself violently. No looking back. Only moving forward. You tell people that all the time, Sonic, now listen to your own damn advice!

I'm in some forest somewhere. There's a giant frog sitting next to a stream. I decide to go over to the stream and rinse myself off somewhat. Yeah there's the dew, but it's also kinda slimy.

I walk over to the stream and the frog jumps in surprise, croaking, and as it hops away there's a sudden, intense rainstorm. Great. I duck back under the trees, vaguely hoping there'll be no thunder. I wanted to wash myself off, not drown myself.

After a few minutes it goes away and I go stick my hand in the stream. Current's not too bad and I can stick my arm in without getting my elbow wet. I jump in and shiver violently. It's a lot colder than I thought it was.

I spend a couple of minutes wiping the dust from the computer room and the slime from the dew off, and when I'm done that I sit on the bank and let the sun dry me off. It's a really nice feeling, the sensation of water droplets individually melting away on my skin. And the feeling of being gradually warmed by the sun cheers me up a little. I breathe in a little and try to forget the darkness that threatens to overtake my mind, and then I get up and go in search of food. This is a forest after all. There's gotta be something edible.

After a little searching I find some sort of berry bush. It doesn't have any of the leaves or colours that Tails told me are poisonous, so I take a handful and chew on them experimentally. They've got little seeds in them, which I don't really like, but I'm starving and I don't have a lot of options right now. They don't taste too bad at least. I get the random bitter one but hey, it's something.

When I've had enough I go back to the stream and sit down cross-legged in the sand. I strip my gloves off and finally give my burn a good washing. It really hurts but I ignore the pain, set my teeth, and keep at it. I've left it dirty for far too long.

When I'm finished washing it I pull a strip off my sock and wrap it up, then put my gloves back on. Then I pull my knees up to my chest and stare into the water, and wish my mind were that clear. I know I should be looking for the next Emerald now, I know I'm wasting time sitting here, but I just… I just don't know what to do. I already hurt Knuckles and Amy, and I they're two of my best friends. I don't want to hurt anyone else. Anyone else I have to take the Emeralds from might not forgive me. Knuckles will. Amy will. I know, even after what I said and what I did, that they'll forgive me. One of the others? I'm not sure.

My head hurts… is it from the thinking or the concussion? I'm also really tired. I wonder how long I slept after I collapsed. Can't have been too long.

I find myself watching this little piece of grass that's in the stream. It's just swirling back and forth, constantly moving, but not getting anywhere. And underneath it the sand has these little dots in them, scallops I think Tails calls them, and if I look at them real close it feels like I'm looking down at little tiny mountains, like there's a whole 'nother world I don't know about down there.

"Mr Sonic?"

I've shot to my feet and stepped back before I can realize it. Sometimes I'm _too_ fast. I have to blink the little mountains out of my eyes and wrench my mind back to the present.

Cream is standing there looking at me. She's wearing one of those tennis visors and she's holding flowers. Cream's always holding flowers.

"Uh… hi Cream." I have to force myself to sit back down. My heart's still pounding in my chest and the instinct to run away is almost overwhelming. I return to my original position and dig my heels into the ground to try and stop my legs from trembling.

She flops down beside me and puts her flowers in her lap. "You look sad, Mr Sonic. What's wrong?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's… I can handle it." I'm trying not to look at her. I try not to lie to little kids, especially not while looking them in the eye.

"Sometimes talking about your problems is very helpful. Sometimes I think I've got a real big problem that I need to fix all by myself, but then momma asks me what's wrong and then I tell her, and she makes everything all right again!" She's beaming up at me, I can see it out of the corner of my eye. I'm trying to catch my reflection in the running water, to see if I really do look as sad as she says I do, but my vision keeps blurring and I can't tell.

I sigh and trace a little circle in the sand with my left index finger. "Well… I guess I can tell you some of it."

Cream smiles even bigger somehow and crosses her legs, settling into her spot.

"I have a big job to do, Cream. And… and most of it, I've gotta do by myself. I can't ask anyone to help me. It's gotta be just me. And my job, it… it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and I… I don't know if I can see it through." I have to stop talking. There's a lump in my throat and I don't want my voice to crack.

"That sounds hard, Mr Sonic." She tips her head a little, and her brown eyes shine with curiosity. She's twitching her nose a little bit.

I swallow hard, but the lump doesn't go away. "Yeah. It… it is pretty hard. I gotta  
keep going but… it ain't easy. I just… sometimes I just wanna give up, you know?"

"Mr Sonic?"

The way her voice sounds, just the pleading hopefulness of it, makes me turn my head and look at her. "What, Cream?"

"You're not going to give up, are you?"

I struggle to keep my eyebrows in a neutral position. Her eyes are so clear, her face is so earnest… I used to look like that. I used to know exactly what to do, exactly what was on my own mind.

"Why d'you ask that?"

Cream looks away from me and fiddles with her flowers. When she speaks again her voice is small, but still sure. "You never give up, Mr Sonic. You always do your best to do what's right. I don't know what it is you're trying to do, but you have to just keep trying, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Cream."

"Please don't thank me, Mr Sonic. I'm just trying to tell you what you taught me!"

I freeze up for a minute, then look at her, brow creased in confusion. "What I taught you?"

She nods, a huge grin on her face, her ears flopping up and down. "Yes! You taught me always to do what's in my heart and to never stop fighting for it, no matter what!"

I look away again, and to my surprise my breaths are shaky. I hope she goes away soon. I need her to go away soon. Please, Cream, please go away soon.

I don't want you to see me cry.

She pokes me in the shoulder.

"What."

"I have something for you… I'm not supposed to give it to you, but I think you should have it." She's pulling at my arm.

"Okay okay, hang on a sec willya?" I yank my arm away from her. "What is it?"

She presents me the blue Chaos Emerald with a smile that outshines even the gem. I'm shocked. Why does Cream have a Chaos Emerald? Who told her not to give it to me?

"My God, Cream… where did you get this?"

She shakes her head playfully. "No telling! I'm not even supposed to give it to you."

I take the Emerald from her and clench it tightly in my fist. It digs into the burn and stings. "Thank you, Cream. I'll take good care of it, I promise."

"I know!" Then all of a sudden she jumps on me and she's wrapping me in a hug, and I'm barely able to catch her in time, I'm so surprised. She smells like baby shampoo and flowers and I have a sudden flashback of Tails jumping on me just like this a long, long time ago, and with a start I realize the memory has brought tears to my eyes. He's gotten so serious lately… I blink them away quickly and hug her back.

She jumps back just as quickly and looks hard at her flowers. She chooses a white one, a magnolia I think, and hands it to me.

"For you." She's still smiling, her brown eyes sparkling in the sun. I take it, my larger fingers brushing her smaller ones, and when I have it she steps back and waves.

"Bye Mr Sonic! Don't give up, okay?"

I can't answer her, I can only nod and wave back. She skips off, and even after a couple of minutes I can hear her singing somewhere not far away. I slump back against a tree and try to keep from crying. I used to be like that. Tails used to be like that. I took both of us and brought us into situations we weren't ready for. I'm not ready to do this. I haven't done enough, haven't seen enough, haven't matured enough. It's breaking me.

I look at the Emerald, spinning it around my fingers, but when I almost drop it I just put it down. If it falls into the stream I'm screwed. I'll never find it if that happens.

I need to get up. I need to keep going. But I can't stop thinking of her. Of the confidence she had in me. How even Cream, even in her innocence, had betrayed someone to give the Emerald to me. She doesn't see it that way. But I do. Just one more person I've made betray their morals or their ideals or whatever.

Would Cream want me to save Eggman? Yes, I realize. She knows that you have to help people, no matter what. Even if you don't like them.

And she learned that from me?

I sniffle a bit and rub at my nose. I think I'm going to cry, just a little. I just need… I don't know what I need. But I'm tired of having all this… this negative stuff inside my head, and I wish I could talk to Tails about it. But he's under enough pressure already. I can't. I have to keep it to myself. I have to stay strong.

But I can't stop the tears from coming into my eyes, so I just bury my head in my arms and stop trying. I'm sorry everyone… please forgive me… I'm doing the right thing, I promise…

When I can stop, I don't feel any better. My mouth is dry and my head is worse, but at least I'm not tearing up anymore. I rub my face with my hand and unfold myself. I feel terrible and I'm going to call it a day and find somewhere to sleep. I think if I shut my brain off for awhile it'll help.

I trudge on through the forest for a long time. I don't feel like running. I just wanna sit down somewhere and disappear. And I would do that, but… there's something inside, and it won't let me quit. I can feel some part of me figuring out what I'm going to do next and I've gotta let it do its job. After a long time I look up and see that I'm outside of a castle. I'm so out of it I didn't realize where I was or how I was getting there. I must be more tired than I thought I was.

Hang Castle is about as welcoming the last time I was there, but I'm not looking for welcoming anyway. I just wanna crash somewhere for a bit. I do a little exploring and find a couple of staircases I don't remember that lead to another floor, and one of the rooms on that floor has a bedroom. Sweet.

I lie down on the bed and close my eyes. As long as I don't sleep for three days I'm okay to crash for awhile.

"Sonic, c'mon an' look an' you'll see, it's purple, please look Sonic!"

"Tails leave me alone! I'm sleeping! Why are you doing this again? Let me sleep!"

"I need you to look, Sonic! It's important!"

"Fine, I'll look!"

I throw off the blanket and scream the words at him so he'll shut up and leave me alone, but I'm screaming them to an empty room. I'm covered in sweat and my heart's pounding away. Great. That's what I need. For that dream to turn into a nightmare.

I take a few deep breaths and then swing my legs over the edge of the bed. Okay. I got the sleep outta the way. Time to get to work. I go to pull out the handheld, but it's not there. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.

Well that's great. I've gone and dropped the handheld somewhere. I grind my teeth at the thought of the time I'm losing going back to Eggman's base to take a look at Tails's. Well, at least I can drop off my Emeralds while I'm there. Angrily I stride out of the house and start heading back the way I came. This is such a stupid waste of time. Why do I have to be such an idiot?

When I get back to Eggman's base the sun is going back down. I've wasted an entire day. I slept too long. I spent too long sitting in the forest. Of all the times for me to be slow…

"TAILS!"

"Sonic!"

Oh God. He looks so happy to see me. His eyes are all lit up and he's smiling… he's smiling just like Cream was.

"Did you find them all?" He runs up holding some sort of tool that I don't recognize. It's some long thing with grips at one end and some sort of head at the other. His voice is full of energy and for a second I'm angry. Why don't I have any of that?

"No. I lost the handheld. I need to look at yours. How's your… your thingy going?"

"Oh, it's alright." I wish I were as cheerful as he was. "It'll be done by the time you find the Emeralds, I'm sure."

He's sure _acting_ cheerful… but he looks just as tired as I felt a few hours ago. I wonder if I should ask if he's okay, or just leave it alone.

He leads me to the machine and he's showing me it without my paying attention when all of a sudden I hear distant noises. He stops talking and we both look up, panicked. Who could have found us? And why?

The door screams open, tortured gears grinding together like cartilage-free joints. The noises stop just inside the door and I glance over at Tails. His posture sags and his face becomes drawn. A sharp contrast to how he was just seconds ago.

Whoever just walked through that door is not someone we want to see right now.


	11. Chapter 11

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Eleven

"So this is where you two have been."

I spin around to see Amadeus standing there, clad only in tall brown boots and his eyepatch. His thick, longish hair makes him look a lot younger than he is, as long as you don't look him in the eye.

Which Tails is doing right now.

The blood drains from my face. No. Not here. Not now.

"Dad." His voice is very, very quiet. I can barely hear him and I'm sitting right next to him. "Dad, go. Please."

Amadeus takes a breath and levels his gaze at his son. It's one of those looks that parents give you that peels you open from the inside out.

"What's going on here? You just disappeared off the face of the planet… son, tell me what's going on. Let me help you."

I see a spark come into his eyes, a spark I haven't seen since we started this.

It's hope. Tails might be smart for his age, but he's still just a kid. He still believes that parents can fix things.

"Dr Eggman is sick, dad. I don't know what's wrong, so Sonic's gathering the Chaos Emeralds and we're going to put them into the device I'm building. We're hoping it will save Eggman." His voice is eager and he leans forwards excitedly, anticipating his dad's approval and ready to add his dad's ideas to the mix.

Amadeus looks at me incredulously, his eyebrows going up and his body tensing. "You've got him building a machine to save Julian? That's why Amy was so upset… why Knuckles is so angry… "

"You don't understand." My voice is strong and clear, but I know I will never convince him. Not this soldier, this general, who in a previous life had his hard-fought freedom and family taken by the man dying behind me.

A long time ago, the day Tails was born, Amadeus saw Robotnik experiment with the roboticizer on somebody else. Amadeus nearly stopped the whole thing then and there, but was captured by a swatbot and roboticised himself. I know that Amadeus will never help me save a man who took from him the first ten years of his only son's life.

"Explain it to me." He stands patiently now, arms folded into each other, but not crossed.

"I… I can't."

"You can't." His voice is nearly sarcastic. The fingers on his right hand smooth down the fur on the opposite arm, over and over.

"I just… it's something I have to do. It's… it's…" I don't know what to tell him. I don't think there is anything I can tell him. He can be a reasonable guy, but only after you argue with him for a very long time, and I don't have that long.

"Fine." Amadeus crosses the room, heading for Tails, who is looking at the floor beside himself. "You can do whatever you like. But keep Miles out of it. He's not going to be a part of your crusade."

I step in front of him, and my heart is in my throat. I can't believe I'm doing this.

"No. He can make his own decisions."

Amadeus looks at me from beneath one raised eyebrow.

"Then why don't you let him?"

I turn a little to look behind me, and Tails is looking at his dad with the worst expression on his face. Like he's tearing himself apart over what to do.

I step aside, but not too far.

"Miles?"

Tails looks at the floor. He's twisting his fingers together, hard.

"I… I want to stay, dad. I want to help Sonic."

A shadow falls over Amadeus's face and he closes his eye for a minute. Then he takes a breath, thins his mouth, and nods.

"Very well. I can respect that."

I can see the relief washing over Tails. Thank you, Amadeus. Thank you.

"But I don't respect your cause. I can't see how you are able to justify risking everything to save the life of this… monster. I'm sorry, but I don't understand." His jaw clenches and his brows come together.

Again I remember the day Tails was born. The day Amadeus was roboticized.

I don't blame the guy.

"That's fine." I clench and unclench my fist, hoping he'll leave soon. I'm not convinced Tails won't go with him. From the corner of my eye I can see the look of horror still etched into Tails's face, and his eyes go wide and fill with tears.

"Sonic…"

I turn to look at him fully as Amadeus's boots clack firmly against the metal floor. "What is it, bud?"

"Dad… he…"

"What?" I'm missing something.

Tails picks up something and hides it in his hand.

"S-stay here, Sonic. Please."

I feel cold fear worm its way into my guts as Tails crosses the room, quickly to catch up with his dad. I should stop him, I know I should stop him. If only I knew what he was doing. Damn it. I should never have done this. His dad is so precious to him, and now I'm forcing him to betray what he at one point could only dream of.

"Dad?"

His voice is so broken and wavery that Amadeus stops in his tracks and turns around quickly to face Tails. His face tightens for a moment in apprehension, and I know just how he feels. Ready to face all the evil in the world just to make Tails stop crying.

"What is it, son?"

Tails wraps his arms around his dad as my peripheral vision picks up a flashing light from where he was kneeling.

From what he was looking at.

It's his handheld.

"Dad, I'm sorry."

His voice is so small and faint that I can barely hear it, and my body hurts from the tension. Oh Tails, what are you doing?

"For what?" Amadeus is the very picture of concern, holding his son tightly and looking down at him as if he's had a nightmare Amadeus can explain away. "You've done nothing wrong."

Tails steps back as something flashes across Amadeus's face.

"Yes I have."

He steps back as his dad falls to the floor, and he steps back when he sees the shock of betrayal in his dad's eye.

"I'm sorry," Tails whispers, and he falls on the floor too, onto his knees, and he starts crying. I swallow hard and walk over to Amadeus.

He does have the Emerald.

I feel so dirty as I take it from him, given what was lost to pay for it. I fight back the lump in my throat as I move his limp body to a dark corner of the room.

Then I move towards Tails, who is rocking back and forth and whimpering into his knees.

"Tails…"

He looks up at me, sadness filling his eyes and emptying in great streams, over and over. "Sonic… he knows I meant no harm, doesn't he? He said he respected my decision… won't he respect this one, once it's all over and I can explain it to him properly?"

I swallow hard, but I can't look at him.

"You know he will, Tails. He's your dad."

"I meant to use it on Eggman… if he woke up and tried to hurt me and you were gone… "

"It's okay, Tails." I try to be soothing but I'm not even convincing myself. "He'll come around. He always does."

Please forgive him, I plead silently with the dark shape in the corner. Hate me. Pin the blame on me. Just don't make him feel any worse about what he's had to do.

Please don't make him hate himself, Amadeus.

The world freezes around me and my legs feel shaky. I stumble back against the wall and brace my arms against it, letting myself slide down to the floor. I'm so tired. I'm so tired of all this, of everything, and I just want it to go away. It's too much for me now. Please, just everything go away.


	12. Chapter 12

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Twelve

Tails is crying.

"Sonic, I don't want to do this anymore." He's not looking at me, and he's rubbing hard beneath his eyes with the heels of his hands. His voice is choked and hard to hear through a mouth that's clenched downwards in sadness.

"Tails… it's gonna be okay. We're almost done. I have four of the Emeralds now."

"But at what cost, Sonic?"

I look at him with my arms crossed tightly across my chest. Maybe if I clench myself hard enough I can keep this guilt from pouring out of my own eyes.

"Pal, it's alright. We're gonna fix everything."

"Sonic, what about our friends and all the things we've done to them? Are they ever going to forgive us?" He's shaking hard now. I'm disgusted with myself. I should hug him, I want to hug him, but if I do I'm going to break too and we don't need that right now. We have three days left and no time to lose. Instead I pull my arms tighter into their fold, feeling the pins and needles from the pressure spread wavelike up and down them, and I tell a lie.

"Of course they're going to forgive us, Tails. They're our friends. They'll understand after, what we had to do." My voice sounds natural, light and confident. I am thankful and I hope that it convinces him.

He looks up at me, but he doesn't look at my face. His eye travels across my numbing arms and down my body. I follow his gaze to see that I'm jiggling my right leg without realizing it.

Ice runs through my veins. If Tails loses confidence in me, it's over. I can't do this alone. I need him. He has to fall apart so I can hold myself together.

My heart stops as I realize what I've just thought.

"Maybe." He's no longer crying like before. His voice is still broken, but clear, and he lets the streams spill down his face as he also brings his arms around to hug himself, because I won't. The words he speaks next drive themselves right into my brain, cutting into a piece of myself I've been denying because I had to. Have to. My mind goes blank and they spin around in its emptiness as my body goes cold and my throat constricts in fear.

"But will I?"

I stumble blindly out the door, needing to get out of the fortress that is slowly sucking the life out of me. It's taking everything from me. It has my happiness, it has my hope, my reasoning. With those three tiny words, he has verbalized my fears.

I don't want to do this anymore either. I want to run inside, to grab Tails and take him away from it, to just go home and forget it ever happened and let Eggman die and rot inside his dead fortress of heavy darkness and cold steel. I imagine it for a minute, Eggman's skeletal knees poking out through their black pants, his now ill-fitting jacket draped over ribs hung with strings of muscle and fat. I can see the glasses half perched on his nose, tilting to the left to hang off what's left of his ear as the thready hairs of his moustache fall silently into a pile on his lap. I can see his near empty sleeves dangling off the arms of the chair, the gloves graying and forgotten on the floor beneath his suspended bony fingers.

Then I remember how Amadeus looked when he realized what Tails was apologizing for, and I realize I have to keep going. If I stop now, everything I have done will be wrong and Tails will have hurt the man he loves most for nothing.

I'm shaking.

I feel behind me with my fingertips, seeking out the cold outer wall, and as I touch it I collapse backwards into it, sliding downwards to rest my body on the ground. My headache makes me clench my teeth. Why hasn't it gone away yet? Why is this sick feeling in my gut getting worse?

I've been going non-stop. It's gonna be okay. I just have to find these last three Emeralds and it will be okay. With more effort than I'd ever admit, I stand back up. I have to go to Westopolis. I have to get the next Emerald from Rouge. I have to start running, and not stop.

I must have crossed several times zones because by the time I get to Westopolis I'm pretty sure it should have been dark out. I don't keep track of time very well so I have no idea, but I know it takes me a few hours to run that far. I was also pretty busy trying to keep myself from thinking.

I slow down once I get there. The streets are so weird here, crisscrossing everywhere for no apparent reason. And yet you don't get lost here. Order out of chaos I guess. I shake my head, hard. I can't stop to—

A sharp spike of pain drives itself hard and harsh into my forehead, and it's so crushing I actually crouch down defensively. What is with this insane headache? First it won't go away, now I can't shake my head? I breathe hard out my nose. This is crazy. I've got to get this done before I fall apart altogether. For a second I imagine it, me just falling apart in the middle of the street like some cheaply made figurine, with my arms and legs in a pile on the ground, and for some reason I think this is really funny and can't stop laughing. I'm glad I'm already on my knees, because I'm laughing so hard I know I would've fallen down.

After a few minutes I manage to calm myself down enough to stand up and remember to breathe. Why in the hell did I think that was so funny anyway? I rub my forehead hard with my thumb and first two fingers and start walking. I'm a bit dizzy. I think I've been running for too long. Once in a while I forget to breathe right and I get short of breath.

Westopolis is pretty empty. I make my way through the tangled streets, keeping as alert as I can, but I don't see anything or anyone. I'm not sure exactly where the GUN fortress is, but I can see a massive building looming in the distance, and that's gotta be it.

When I finally get there, judging by the three security guys I can see hanging around the entrance, this is probably the GUN fortress. I scan the building quickly, but there seems to be just the one door. And obviously I can't just walk up and stroll on in.  
Hm.

That's so stupid it might actually work.

I take a breath and come out of the shadows across the street, striding boldly across it right to the massive front steps. Immediately the three security guys train their rifles on me, and from the glint of metal in the sun I can see three snipers on the roof. Might be harder than I thought.

"Hey guys." I give a general wave at the guys in front of me with my left hand, and nod at the guys on the roof. "What's shakin'?"

"What do you want, hedgehog?" This is the guy on my left. He sounds young, and not like he really wants to ask that question. The guy on my right is getting a little close with his gun, I guess to make up for the younger guy.

"Oh, I'm just here to see Rouge." I stay as loose and casual as possible, shrugging as I say it, keeping my attention on the younger guy. The guy in front of me is keeping his distance, but I'm getting a weird vibe from him. As if he's watching me carefully.  
The gun-happy dude grunts, and I think he was laughing at me because he jabs me with the gun. "You're here to see Rouge, eh? I think we'dve known if you'd made an appointment."

I snort. "Me? Appointment? You sure you know who I am?"

The guy growls and jabs his gun into me harder. I turn to him and give him my best menacing look. "One more time, buddy, and you know where that's gonna be."

"I'd like to see you try it, you little rodent," he sneers, and this makes my quills stand up. I _hate_ being called a rodent. Hedgehogs are not rodents. I am not a rat, I am not related to a rat, and I don't even look like one. This guy's asking for it. I'm trying to think of a way to hit him and get away with it when the guy in front of me says something in a muffled voice.

"Huh?" I turn to look at him, while keeping an eye on the idiot who's face I'm gonna pound.

"I've called Agent Rouge. She'll be here shortly." His voice is just as muffled, but at least I can hear it better now.

"She'll tell ya what's what." I smirk at my new best friend and he snarls something back at me about putting me back in the Dumpster I crawled out of, waving his fancy gun at me again.

As we stand there, waiting for Rouge, I suddenly remember the flaw in this plan.

Rouge _doesn't_ know I'm coming.

I'm mentally kicking myself when the iron doors of the fortress open silently and Rouge slithers out. I say slithers because she looks like a bat, but walks like a snake. "Hey Sonic," she calls in her throaty voice, and I start to think I might get out of this after all. I nod and raise my left hand once in a greeting wave.

"Agent Rouge, Sonic claims he's here to see you?" His gun has somehow made its way between the spines on my back.

"I always have time for old friends, Captain." She moves slowly around the guy in front of me, and gives me an appraising look. "You're not looking too good, Blue."

I shrug. "Hey, you can't look like a superstar every day. Can you tell this guy to bug off? I don't like where he's pointing that thing."

She extends her finger lazily and pushes down the captain's gun with it. "Go easy on him, honey. He seems to have had it rough lately."

The captain growls and steps back. I shake myself a little bit to unflatten my quills and with a shock I notice the soldier in front of me continuing to stare at me closely. I look away quickly. He's giving me the creeps for some reason.

"C'mon, Sonic." Rouge wraps her fingers one by one around my upper right arm and starts to pull me towards the entrance to the gun building. She's just doing it for show, her fingers are just resting on my skin. That guy is still staring at me, I can feel it.

"Ma'am?" It's the younger guy, and as I turn to look he's pointing his gun at the ground and reaching for Rouge. "I… I don't trust him."

Rouge lowers her eyes and smiles at him. "Neither do I."

Well that's great. Rogue has some sort of scheme in mind I didn't know about.

She starts to saunter back into the building with me on her arm, taking those mincing little footsteps of hers as the young guy and the captain start protesting loudly at her. She's smiling to herself as she brings me inside and closes the metal doors. As soon as they close she lets go of my arm and keeps walking. I just stand there, trying to think of what I'm going to tell her.

"You gonna hang out on the doormat all day, blue? Come into my parlour." She looks over her shoulder with a coy little smile.

Huh. So I'm the fly then, huh? Okay. I'll bite. I follow her deeper into the fortress. I can hear the whirring of tiny cameras moving back and forth.

"So what's up, Rouge?" It's dark and I have to watch where I'm going. Now that I think of it, fortresses are usually dark like this.

"You came to see me, didn't you? So why don't you tell me?" I can only see the top of her head through the darkness.

I think about it. I'm not sure if there's a good way to get out of explaining it to her, because Rouge is anything but dumb. But I'll say something and roll with it. That usually works.

"I need to borrow something from you."

"Go on." She opens some random door I didn't see and beckons me ahead of her. Inside the room is a long brown table with eight or ten straight-backed chairs around it. There are computer screens set into the table in front of each chair, and there's a massive screen hanging from one of the walls. Must be the war room or something.

Rouge closes the door with a soft click and turns to face me. I jump up on the table and pull my right ankle over my left knee, which is dangling over the edge. Think fast, Sonic…

Rouge pulls out the chair facing me and sits down on it, leaning forward with her arms kind of crossed over her knees. She's looking at me from under her eyelashes. "So what could I possibly have that you would want, Sonic? Surely you're not here just to visit little old me?"

"Of course I came to visit you, Rouge." I glance around the room. The light is not much better in here.

"Mmhm. And is there anything you… wanted from me?"

I look at her out of the corner of my eye. "Kinda. I'm hoping you can give it to me, anyway."

Rogue starts laughing. I frown and breathe out quickly. "Stop playing with me, Rouge, and be serious willya?"

"I don't know, sweetie… this is pretty entertaining." She sits back in the seat and crosses her legs, clasping her hands on her knee. I notice how long her fingers are. Now that must come in handy when you're stealing stuff.

I let my other leg drop off the table, and she has to push the chair back so I don't kick her. I jerk my leg back in surprise. She frowns. "No need to be rough…"

"Rouge, I need to… borrow your Chaos Emerald." Hm, that didn't sound too bad. I replay it in my head and decide the pause wasn't _that_ long.

"Oh really?" she purrs. She leans forward in the chair again. "Sounds like something I would do."

I shrug and scratch behind my ear. I think I forgot to wash there yesterday. "Unlike you, I'm pretty happy to give it back when I'm done with it."

She laughs. "Done with it eh? Sounds like you don't need it that much."

"Yes, I do!" My voice is loud, and sudden, and I grip the edge of the table with my fingers so hard pain shoots up my arm. I lost control. Damn it.

She raises a brow and looks at me sideways. "There's an interesting reaction…"

I grind my teeth a little and try to relax my fingers. It doesn't work, and my leg is starting to twitch again. I've gotta get the Emerald and get out.

"C'mon, Rouge. I keep my word, don't I?" I strain to keep my voice pleasant and reasonable while struggling to loosen my grip on the table and keep my leg still. I think I'm going to lose my mind. She looks at her glove as if she has fingernails to inspect and ignores me.

I force myself to wait, to be patient. But when I'm trying to do that the seconds drag by into minutes. Sometimes it sucks moving at high speed all the time. Slow seems so much slower.

Finally, she brushes some non-existent speck off her arm and stretches slowly. It's kind of mesmerizing and when she smiles, I realize I was staring at her. I look the other way immediately, and I can hear a low chuckle deep in her throat. At least my fingers aren't stuck to the table anymore. She rises from the chair and smacks me on the shoulder. "Hang in there, blue. I'll be right back."

I take a breath and move myself back on the table a bit. I feel like I'm gonna fall off. Is she really gonna make it that easy? I swing my legs back and forth to give myself something to focus on until she comes back.

Or is she going to make me trade her something for it? That makes me stop for a minute. I don't have anything she wants. Maybe she's just gonna wave it under my nose and giggle.

She saunters back into the room, holding the Emerald in front of her. I have to squint. It's way too bright for this room man.

"Here it is." She tosses it at me and only years of reflex bring my hands forward to catch it. I look at it and frown at her.

"That's it? You're just gonna hand it over? What'll the big guns say?"

She waves a hand at me. "Hmph. Don't you have any confidence in me? That's my concern, not yours."

I swallow and put the Emerald in my lap. "You sure about this, Rouge?"

Take it, stupid. Just say thanks and walk out. Stop giving her chances to take it back!

She smiles. I wish she'd stop. I keep getting the feeling she knows something I don't. There's a sparkle in her eyes I don't like.

"It's alright, blue. No questions asked. It's yours. Just keep up your end of it and bring it back when you're finished. Okay?" I slide off the table and walk by her. She doesn't take her eyes off me. "Need me to see you out?"

"I remember the way."

"Suit yourself." She runs a finger down my arm and I shudder. She laughs again and sits down on the arm of the chair, leaning forward and crossing her legs. I turn away from her and start walking.

When I leave the fortress the soldiers are the same as before, in the same positions as before. The captain growls something at me I can't hear, and the young guy shushes him. I walk around the building to the right side, and as I'm going there I feel a pricking in the back of my head.

I turn, and the other soldier, the one who hasn't said anything, is still staring at me. When he notices me looking at him, he nods. Just once.

I hesitate, then nod back. Must be some soldierly respect thing. Although why that guy's not giving me a hard time, I don't know.

The sun is descending in the sky and everything is red. The sky is this brilliant crimson, and all the stuff that can catch light here is bouncing that colour right into my eyes. Normally I would admire such clean, pure colour coming from thin air like that, but it's only making my headache worse. I rub at my forehead a little and keep walking. I have to go… I have to go see the Chaotix next. I have a long way to go before I get there.

A sudden shock runs through me as I realize the thought of running makes me feel sick.

I… I don't think that's ever happened before.

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Keep going. I gotta keep going. There's time to feel like shit later. I have two Emeralds to go and no time to waste indulging myself. I only gotta strain myself for two more days. Then this is all over.

I hope.


	13. Chapter 13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter Thirteen

"Soooooonic. Soooooooniiiiic. SONIC!"

I groan and put my arm over my face. "What, Tails."

"Come on and look at my light, huh?

"No. I ain't gonna look at your dumb light."

"It ain't dumb! I builded it! Don' you wanna see what I made?" I can feel him bouncing on me. Annoying little furball.

"Get off me, Tails! I'm sleeping!"

"But Sonic, I made it red! I made it red today!"

He won't leave me alone. He's been arguing and arguing and arguing, he won't stop asking me to look at his stupid light. I'm getting so angry, I just want to hit him. I can feel myself preparing to hit him.

"SonicSonicSonic please will you look at it, please, it'll only take a second, please…"

"LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!" I yell, and I fall out of bed onto a surprisingly hard floor. There're screws or something digging into my arm. "Damn it Tails, why do you gotta leave your stuff lying around!" I turn around to let him see how angry I am, but he's not there. I smash my face into something instead and collapse onto my back for a minute, holding my face. That hurt. That hurt a lot. Oh my God did that hurt.

After a few moments I push myself up again, still holding my face with my right hand, and I look to see what I nearly clocked myself with.

A park bench.

I shake my head and manoeuvre around to rest my back against it, and I go to wipe the… the gravel off my arm. Some of it comes off, but the rest of it only smears. I'm covered in sweat again. I decide to leave the dirt alone until it dries and I can rub it off. I use the other hand, the one without dirt on it, to rub at the sweat on my brows. I hate that.

My hands are shaking.

I pull my hand back down and fold my arms back into my chest so I don't have to see it. I'm overtired, that's all. I don't quite remember how I got on this bench, but I remember walking until it was too dark to see, and trying to keep going anyway. The sun is just coming up. I can tell by how the air feels. Between cool and cold. And it's a little bit wet.

I go to stand up and almost fall over. I'm dizzy again. Woohoo. I hope it goes away soon. I already don't feel like running. I think about how far I need to go and try to mentally calculate how long it's going to take me to get there. Leaf Storm… Mirage Road… Crystal Mountain… Mystic Haunt…

Wait.

What?

What did I just say?

When… when was the last time I didn't feel like running? I mean, last night I kinda didn't like the idea, but now it's like… I legit don't want to.

Eggman really is taking everything precious away from me. I rub my eyes and try to swallow the sadness I feel on thinking that. At the end of this, is Eggman going to have everything, and leave me with nothing? Is this what I get for trying to do the right thing?

It can't end that way. It can't. I'm the hero. My actions are completely justified, and at the end will be my reward. That's how it works.

Isn't it?

I shake my head and pick myself up, regretting the action as it makes the dizziness worse.

I have to run for most of the day before I finally reach the Splash Hill Zone. I have to keep stopping on the way there. The dizziness isn't going away, and when it gets so bad I can't see I have to put on the brakes and kneel down for a minute. The closer I get to Splash Hill, the more often I have to stop. Oh boy. And I still have to go all the way back. That thought is not helpful, so I stop thinking it. I can't think about anything negative right now. I'm almost done. I'm almost there. Just two more, and I can stop.

The Chaotix are in this little hut kind of thing deep in the Splash Hill Zone. I guess according to the time zones it was afternoon when I got here… the sun is going down now. It took me all afternoon to find their house. The colour the sun is lending to the already brightly coloured zone is making my head hurt, so I jump down a hill and duck under the overhanging roof of their house to shield myself from it. I'm not sure whether to knock or see if the door is open, but I don't have to do either. As soon as I get there the door opens and I fall through it.

"Sonic!" shouts Vector. "We weren't expecting to see you here!"

I pick myself up off the floor and rub my head. "Yeah well, expect the unexpected, right?"

Vector shrugs. "I guess so." He stares at me for a minute, then looks behind him, his eyes going wide and waving his hands a little bit. "Espio! Hey, Espio! C'mere!"

"I AM here." Espio fades into view beside Vector. He's eyeing me a bit suspiciously. I wave at him a little.

Vector elbows Espio hard. "Be nice Espio… and maybe he'll be nice back!"

"Huh?" I look from one to the other and resist the urge to tap my foot. Well, almost. I've restrained it to tapping my toes inside my shoe.

"Vector and I wanted to go to the Casino Street Zone, but we can't take Charmy." Espio speaks in a quiet, logical voice, staring right at me. It's a pretty intense stare too.

"And we can't just leave him here, that wouldn't be good for him." Vector looks across the room, and I follow his gaze to see Charmy sleeping on the couch. "He needs stimulation while he's a kid, ya know."

"Yeah." I remember my stimulation at his age. Same thing I'm doing right now. What a childhood I had.

"So… since you're here, you can watch him for us, right?" Vector's face is suspiciously blank and I'm not sure why.

I blink a few times. "Uh… well actually, I-"

"Of course he will." Espio manages to stare at me even more intensely. "Sonic's always willing to help a friend, aren't you Sonic."

"Uh, yeah, but-"

"All right!" Vector gives Espio a high-five, waves at Charmy, and pulls Espio towards the front door. "Let's go then."

"Don't leave on us now. We're trusting you to take care of him." Is Espio smirking at me? I sink into a chair at the kitchen table. Why did he have to say that? Why are so many people trusting me to take care of them? They're chattering but I can't hear what they're saying. There's a rushing noise in my head.

Vector slams the door hard on the way out, which seems to clear out my ears. I put my arms on the table and put my head on top of them. I hate this. Can someone not trust me for once? I think that'd be nice.

No, you idiot. If no one trusted you, then what would be the point of all this? You want them to trust you, and then ask that they don't?

Oh great. I'm arguing with myself. Awesome. I wish this day could get even more awesome.

"SONIC!"

I whip my head around to find Charmy bouncing up and down on the couch. Boy oh boy. I forgot he'd had his mind scrambled. He zips over to me, his wings buzzing frantically. "Sonic!"

"Yeah Charmy?"

"I haven't seen you in a long, long, long, long, long time!" He says this really fast and I can barely understand what's coming out of his mouth.

I rub my eyes. "I haven't seen you in a bit either."

He starts yelling and buzzing around and generally being a pain, and I swear if he doesn't stop soon I'm gonna reach over and hit him. "CHARMY!" I stick my hand out and shake my head. "Stop that, willya?"

He sticks his tongue out at me and starts doing loop de loops. I blow air out my nose, hard, and then rub at my head a bit. "Charmy. Charmy. Hey. Charmy. C'mere."

"Why?"

"Because… because I can't do that. You gotta do something we can do together."

"Why?"

That's a little harder. I hope he's not playing the 'why' game with me. Tails used to play it with me when he was younger, only he was actually interested in the literal answers. "Uh… well, you're gonna get bored playing by yourself, and I don't come over a lot?"

He stops flying in circles and lands so close to me I thought he was going to land _on_ me. "Okay."

"Charmy, there's only room for one of us on this chair. Move over."

He blows a raspberry at me, which is not fun, and while I'm wiping my face off he climbs onto the table. I have no idea whether he's allowed to sit there or not, I know Tails wasn't but he also comes with a lot more fur than Charmy does. So I just let it go and sit back in the chair, folding my arms.

"So. What do you like doing, Charm?"

Charmy puts a finger to his mouth and licks at it a little. "Playing!"

"Yeah, I got that. Playing what?"

"Outside!"

I glance around the room and see through the bay window at the front of the house that there is no way we are going out there and doing anything. The redness has deepened into purple. "It's too dark, Charmy. We gotta do something else, okay?"

"Nooo. Outside."

"We're not playing outside. Pick something else."

"Camping!"

"Now there's an idea. You wanna use sheets or just the couch cushions?"

"Everything!" He flings his arms up in the air. Sheets it is.

I get out of my chair, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. My legs hurt for some reason and the rest of me is almost as sore. Am I getting old or something?

He grabs onto my head and tries to pull on it for some reason, but before I know what I'm doing I've hit him to get him out of my hair. I do not like being touched. I can't stand it. If you're not Tails, get away from me.

Charmy doesn't fall out of the air, but he does start whining about it. I didn't hit him that hard, did I? "Sorry kiddo, it's reflex… I can't help it. Uh… you wanna show me where the sheets are, buddy?"

He makes a face like he's going to be difficult, but I guess going camping is better than whining because he heads on up the stairs with me tagging along behind him. He opens some random purple door and shows me the sheet he wants to use. It's white, with pastel green and pink stripes on it.

It doesn't take me that long to build a couch cushion tent. I used to do it all the time. Sometimes, when it was raining and my uncle wouldn't let me go outside, I would get to take the couch cushions into my room and just leave the tent there for days. Come to think of it, he let me do a lot of things if I couldn't go outside. I remember he used to let me draw on the walls in the closets and stay up way too late.

While I was making it Charmy buzzed around making… uh… helpful suggestions, bringing things to put in the tent, and generally talking nonstop. I didn't mind, as long as he kept away from the tent itself. I don't need him to lose concentration and fall right through the thing.

Eventually I've got that sorted out and he starts pulling on my arm. "C'mon c'mon let's go!"

"Hey calm down. I gotta be careful, I'm a lot bigger than you." I did kinda compensate for the size difference, but there's only so much height you can make out of a sheet and a couch cushion. I crawl underneath the roof and sit down. My head is brushing the top, but I didn't do too bad. He crawls in too, even though he doesn't have to, and then proceeds to show me his collection of action figures. I have no idea who any of them are, since I don't watch a lot of TV, but a good number of them are missing legs and arms. When I ask him why he tells me that he was "gonna mix them all up good". For some reason I think of Tails and the shelf in his bedroom, where he has a set he got when he was a kid not much older than Charmy thinks he is. Tails almost never played with those toys, and when he did, they just stood there and he talked in different voices. I reach over and pick up one of the toys. It's some dude with a blue bodysuit and red underwear. I think I've seen him somewhere before but the paint is so scratched up I can't tell. And besides that he has no head.

Charmy starts dealing out the toys and I try to play with them, I really do, but I don't know who these guys are and apparently I'm "doin' it wrong!". After a while I just give up and watch him play with them. He's not very nice to them, and if he keeps going like that they're going to be useless one day, but I keep thinking of the set in Tails's room and I can't help but wonder which figures are worth more.

He starts pinching my arm and I look down at him. "What?"

"I'm hungry." He frowns and rubs his stomach.

Oh good. What the heck do I do now? Kids are picky, I know that. I poke him out of the tent so I can get out and when I stand up my spine cracks a little. Man it's cramped in there.

I take a look around the kitchen and try and spot something easy I can give the kid without giving him junk. There's a holder with some bananas on it. That should be alright. "Hey Charmy. You like bananas, kiddo?"

He claps and flies up onto the table. I pull the banana off the bunch and go to peel it, but he starts yelling that he can do it himself so I quickly hand it off. He can't quite crack the skin but he keeps at it stubbornly, and eventually he peels it off in a bunch of little strips. The top of the thing is completely mashed up. I take the peelings and toss them in the garbage, then sit down at the table and wait for him to finish.

"Fawnic?"

I realise I've been staring at the floor and look up at him. He's talking to me through a mouthful of banana. "What's up?"

He offers me the banana. He's holding it like it's going to fall out of his hand and it's covered in mushy marks. My stomach turns over and I look away. "Uh.. No thanks, buddy. You can have it."

Now I'm feeling kind of sick so I decide to get up and see if there's any marshmellows for him to have. Not the best thing to do, I know, but I couldn't leave the room or anything and I needed some sort of distraction. And anyway it's not really camping without marshmellows.

All I can find is half a bag of the little coloured marshmellows, badly closed with a tied-together red rubber band, but it's good enough. I look in the fridge and there's a bottle of apple juice. There. I'll give him that.

"C'mere buddy, I got something for ya." I kneel down and he jumps off the table and runs over to me. I pour some of the marshmellows into his hands. "Don't eat them yet, okay? They're for the tent." I pour some of the juice into a sippy cup and we go back under the sheet.

He makes me play Snakes'n'Ladders with him, which I haven't played in a really long time, only he doesn't seem to get the concept of rules and just goes up everything, snakes included, whenever he lands on one. I can't stand losing, even against a kid, so after a while of that I refuse to play.

"Sonic… please? Please will you? C'mon play with me Sonic!" He's got his hands on my knee and he's looking at me with those pleading kid eyes.

"No way, kiddo. I don't get how to play and you won't explain it to me."

"I'll give you a surprise if you win."

With Charmy, that could be anything from a gold ring to the head off the blue superhero guy. But I hate not knowing things almost as much as I hate losing. Now he's told me there's something at stake, not only do I gotta win, but I gotta figure out his rules and win.

We start another game and this time he doesn't go up the snakes. Clever kid. He was playing me all along. He's smarter than I gave him credit for.

It's really hard for me to play this game, because it's entirely up to chance, and I prefer to play games that have even a little bit of skill involved. Knowing if I don't win this game means I don't know what the surprise is is killing me the whole time I play.

I'm losing for most of the game, and eventually get a roll that takes me to the top line of squares on the board. Then I get to within one space of the end. Oh yeah. Take that Charmy. He's halfway down the board.

Then to my utter horror I watch him slowly inch up the board while I can't throw a one to save my life. When he finally makes it to that last square I feel like I just lost a battle with Eggman. I can't believe I was so close and lost it all.

Charmy cheers and has his little piece do a victory dance, but I only shake my head and turn away. I can't believe it. I just can't. That's crazy. I should have won the stupid game. This is why I don't play games. I haven't beaten Tails in years and now I can't even beat a little kids. I know I'm being a sore loser, but when you win all the big battles you start to expect you're gonna win the little ones too.

Charmy tugs on my arm. I look at him sulkily. "What."

"I'm tired." He's not whining this time.

"Go to bed then."

"Can I sleep here?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."

He runs out of the tent and comes back with a little pillow and blanket. He rolls under the roof and puts the pillow down, wrapping himself in the blanket. And starts poking me again.

"What, Charmy."

"Read me a story." I realize he's been poking me with a book.

I look at the book. I vaguely recognize it, but I don't think I've ever read it before. Must be one of those kids books that are everywhere. I open it and start reading. It's about a kid and his mom. His mom sings to him every night when he's sleeping, and then one day the kid sings to his mom when she's sleeping.

When I finish the book, Charmy's fast asleep with his finger in his mouth. I carefully pull the finger out of his mouth and look at the book again.

I wonder where Charmy's mother is. I wonder if she's still alive, and what she'd do if she knew what happened to him.

I stick my head out of the tent to try and see what time it is, and it's well after ten. I guess I'm not getting a Chaos Emerald today, least not until Espio and Vector get back. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

Then I realize that was the first time I thought about Chaos Emeralds all night.

I sit back against the couch cushion and pull my knees up to my chest. Come to think of it, I… I haven't thought about the whole shebang since I got here. And honestly… it's been really, really nice. I mean yeah, the kid was kind of annoying, but what kid isn't? I'd be lying if I didn't say I had fun at the end of it all. And I haven't had that kind of fun in a long, long time. And now I kinda miss it. I'm not really that old and yet… I feel really old right now. And I can't remember the last time me and Tails hung out and just did nothing. And I know, I know that saving Eggman is the right thing, but… Tails was right all along. We don't need that kind of stress in our lives. Not just we but… I don't need it.

For one dizzying second I wonder if I'm doing this out of some sort of twisted self-gratification, like maybe I'm not only saving Eggman to make myself feel better, but to make myself feel worth something. There are two things I can do, two things I'm known for. Kicking Eggman's ass and running. If I let Eggman die, would I be letting a part of me die with him? Am I using this strange morality no one else seems to understand just to make sure I still matter?

No. No. I can't think like that. I don't work that way. I'm doing it because it's right. That's why I'm doing it. I _do_ like showing him who's boss, but I don't like him hurting my friends either.

Still, I can't help but wonder if Eggman dying, and me not having to step in and save the day all the time, would affect how people look at me.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"Well look what we have here! Two sleepy l'il campers!"

"Hush, Vector. No need to wake Charmy up. You know how he gets."

Oh no. I fell asleep. You're not supposed to do that when you're babysitting. Crap. I force my eyes open and go to sit up straight, but Espio is leaning down, looking inside the tent, and he shakes his head. It's too dark to see his face and I'm glad. "It's late, Sonic. You may as well stay out the rest of the night."

"I… I'm sorry." My mouth is dry and it's hard to talk. Espio shakes his head again.

"It's alright. You're clearly quite exhausted. Go back to sleep, Sonic."

He stands up and I can hear Vector and Espio talking in low voices as they leave the room and head upstairs. In falling asleep I've slid down onto my back, and there's no way I'm going back to sleep in that position. I crawl out the other side and snag a pillow from the couch. May as well crash in comfort right?

I lie down and look over at Charmy. His finger is in his mouth again, but for a second I mistake him for Tails, and I… I feel kind of sad. I honestly can't remember the last time I just sat down and talked to Tails about absolutely nothing, and yet in the middle of an emergency I found time to do it with this random kid? I obviously can't have been a good brother lately.

No, Sonic, don't think about that. You can leave that in the past and move forward. That's the best thing to do, especially now that I'm so close.

I'm going to sleep and Tails is sitting next to me. He's not bouncing on me or pestering me today. I decided I want to see his light today. I wonder why he's not asking me to look at it. I sit up.

"Hey Tails, where's your light? I wanna see it."

Tails shakes his head sadly at me. "It doesn't work anymore. It only shows normal light."

"Normal light?"

He shows me his light. It's just a regular flashlight. I guess before it had coloured lenses or something that changed the light to different colours. I wonder how it broke.

"Sorry I didn't get to see it, Tails. I… I should've looked before, when you asked me." I lie back down. I hope he's not mad at me.

"It's alright, Sonic. At least you looked at all." He starts walking his fingers up my arm. For some reason his touch makes my fur stand up. I brush his hand off only for him to put it right back. I look over at him and… and he's not there.

It's Charmy, walking one of his toys up my arm. I'm curled up on my left side, with my head on my left arm and the right one lying on the floor. That is the one Charmy's playing with.

"Hey." My voice is thick and cracks even on that one word. "Don't do that."

"Whyyyyy?" He continues doing it.

"Because I don't like it. Stop."

He sticks his tongue out at me and does it anyway. I push his arm away and roll out from under the tent. Ow. My back hurts. I don't wanna sleep in a cramped space anytime soon.

I pull myself up onto the couch and stretch the kinks out of my back, yawning and sticking my legs out while I'm at it. They're still really sore and I don't know why. They should be better by now.

"Good morning."

I look around in a bit of a panic to see Espio sitting in an armchair reading a newspaper. "Uh… hey there, Espio. Um… how was your trip?"

"It was very good, thank you."

I rub at my left shoulder. It's kinda got pins and needles from my sleeping on it.

Charmy crawls out from under the tent and waves enthusiastically at Espio. Espio nods and waves back once. I wipe at my eyes a bit and reach for the sheet. Time to clean up and go I guess.

"You can leave it."

"Alright."

"Sonic Sonic Sonic c'mere huh I got somethin' to show ya!" Charmy flies over to my head and tugs on my ears. Instinctively I push him away. "Hey, what'd I say about that?"

Charmy starts to hum obnoxiously and I close my eyes and be silently thankful that Tails was not this annoying. I follow the kid upstairs, to his room. It's painted dark purple and he's got toys everywhere. Most of them are broken, or missing something.

"I got your surprise," he sings, and he goes up into his closet somewhere. I just stand there. My surprise? But didn't I lose?

He comes back out of the closet holding something behind his back. "Charmy… thanks, but I didn't win. You said I had to win to get the surprise."

He shrugs. "I changed my mind. You played good."

He hands me a Chaos Emerald.

I don't know what surprises me more, the fact that he has it or the fact that he knows the value it has to me. "Uh Charmy… you know what this is, don't you?"

"Yep! It's a shiny rock!"

"Where… where did you get this, Charmy?"

"Vector gave it to me!"

And what better place to hide a Chaos Emerald than in a kid's bedroom full of broken toys. No one would ever look there. "Thanks."

"Welcome!" He pats me on the head and then flies off. I look at the Chaos Emerald and feel hopeful for the first time in a long, long time. One more. One more, and I can finish this whole thing and be done with it. I leave the house as quickly as I can, saying some sort of garbled goodbye to Espio, and start running for Green Hill.


End file.
